OnTheBeach: A Deadline Is Not Supposed to Actually Kill You!

On Friday last week I had a panic and an epiphany – the panic was thanks to two insomnia-fuelled ‘bad’ work days – bad as in I couldn’t concentrate or focus, didn’t get as much done as I had hoped to do, could see my deadlines slipping away, everything I did took at least twice as long as it should, mistakes were made and I spent most of the days sitting slumped at my desk saying “please let me sleeeeeeep”.

Side note to self: Next time, just go to bed for an hour – this is far better use of the time, and when you wake up you’ll be compus mentis and able to do something constructive.

Anyway, I was too tired to make that wise decision, so I battled on. Slowly, cocking up left, right and centre and slowly building up to the panic. In my plan for 2014, my book would be released in summer, followed by the beach cards in September, the physical Dreams to Reality journal in October, and the Vision Workshop in December. Only the book finally got released at the end of October.

So I was 2 months behind already. Being a bit of an idiot…um, sorry, I mean an optimist, I decided I could still do all 3, and started the cards. Within a couple of days I realised that I couldn’t do all 3 by Christmas AND keep my sanity, so I dropped the Dreams To Reality physical journal for now. Had I been fully compus mentis, the Beach Cards would have been completed by the end of Friday and if not ordered, at least be 1 hour from ready to order.

But that didn’t happen. And honestly, the deadline for the workshop is pretty damn tight already, so panic set in. I went to my mastermind buddies and sent up a distress flare and they reminded me that all is well, and to focus on my top priority first. Ah, that’ll be the workshop then! Because the whole point of this workshop is to make it available for the New Year, when everyone is setting their resolutions, thinking about what they want for life in 2015, and starting to plan…

So, the epiphany – the Beach Cards aren’t a priority. I really want them in my hands…but if I let that deadline push this deadline, I’ll be more disappointed to not have the workshop done than to not have the cards in my hands.

This time of year, I have a tendency to try to fit way too much in – cramming in nights out with friends I haven’t seen all year, shopping every five minutes, parties, work projects I want to finish ‘by the end of the year’ even though I have just 17 working days left (eeek!) before the Christmas break. All of this at a time when I feel one should curl up with a duvet and a book by the fire and wait patiently for Spring to come and thaw my toes.

(Note to Canadians and Northern Europeans, and people in genuinely cold countries yes, I’m aware that I live in a fairly temperate climate…but when the temperature dips under 10 degrees celsius, I wither. You hardier souls have my admiration…and you can keep your minus 40 degrees. Brrrrr.)

And it’s a pattern we see repeated everywhere – everyone is trying to ‘pack things in’ and finish things before the New Year and run up to the holidays in a whirl of busyness and bewilderment. It’s so tempting to ramp up the activity and meet that end of year/Christmas/totally made up deadline. But the truth is this:

The point of a deadline isn’t that you arrive at it dead.

Especially a self-imposed deadline! You may have already noticed that I have a tendency to be wildly optimistic about the length of time things take (if you were around for ze never ending book saga), and at this time of year, that can be dangerous! No one wants to hit Christmas worn out and ready to drop…and yet it’s what so many of us do.

So, I ask you this:

Can you simplify?

Can you apply the principles of wu wei (non-doing or effortless action) and just slow down?

The season calls for it, the amount of time we have left to the end of the year calls for it, and after a busy year, maybe your body, mind, heart and soul are calling for it too?

And if, after slowing down, simplifying and clearing the decks, you find you have more time, you can squeeze more in if you wish…or you can congratulate yourself, wrap your duvet more tightly around you and just relax in front of the fire with a book!

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