Thursday, September 17, 2009

Procrastination begins with I can't right now...

David Letterman has a nightly Top Ten list, your mother tried to teach you to carry a shopping list, kids are given Back to School lists and the TV Guide Channel is nothing but a list of things you don’t want to watch.



Facebook builds for you a complete list of your friends and relatives, restaurants put passion into creating a list of their food but never in alphabetical order, multitasking is an invisible list while that honey-do list the man in your life promises to get to just sits there wiggling its tongue at you.



Whatever happened to a simple projects list?



It’s quick, dirty and reveals to that side of you that doesn’t like to participate with the importance of the things and ideas required in the line of accomplishment. A simple projects list includes the expectations of work, personal endeavors at home and or really fun things you do outside the walls of normal that keep your mind body and soul feeling like a kid. Whatever it takes to feed the colors in your eyes staring back in the mirror that simple line, “You complete me.”



Mentally or physically we all carry a list—only to realize every Sunday night at ten we without a doubt forgot to pull one off to enjoy it or flat out get it done.



Now you know the rest of my story. The biggest and best dream I own isn’t to fly to Seattle to climb Mount Rainier or zoom off to a writing seminar to locate words people understand…I can’t find the steam to pick up a bowling ball and finally join the pro tour in Vegas or jump into a pair of Wal-Mart purchased Carolina Panthers Underoos and replace Jakey D on the team. If I could do anything, it would be to jack the right side of my house up three thousand feet and dump everything inside into a giant trash can leaving me with nothing but a future to shape.



Seriously! How many items do you have stacked up on your simple projects list that refuse to act like feathers leaving you in giant bouts of pouts which do nothing but weigh you down? Too many projects lead to ineffectiveness.



Lou Babauta authored the book The Power of Less, in it he tells you how to pick three things on your simple projects list…it can be anything and it doesn’t have to be played out in any particular order. Everything else goes on a second list that he swiped from the leagues of baseball the On Deck List. They’re not the well rounded kid planted on the face of the wooden bench; you’ll get to them but not right now.



Rule number one: Don’t move any On Deck project from that list into the category of starting players. They can only become part of the World Series when you complete one or all three of the events requiring attention on the simple projects list.



I’ll give you a good example: From July 21st to last Tuesday the single most important thing I wanted to do was get back to Tae Kwon Do. For it to materialize a lifestyle of jogging, running, eating better and taking overpriced drugs was required—if I missed any day, I would pay the price. By remaining loyal to my simple projects list not only did I ace the nuclear stress test by exceeding the limits of most HA patients but I returned to the sport not even two months after the sudden without notice stop on a very busy and congested highway called life. The doctor had me convinced I’d barely last fifteen minutes in class…sometimes you have to look away and say you have no idea—the extra blood shooting through this system gave these lungs Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man strength. But it couldn’t have happened without being honest and dedicated to a simple projects list.



Once a goal is met on the simple projects list you are to immediately select another from the On Deck list. Achieving goals are what humans are constructed to do—even if it’s to master the new Beatles Rock Band video game.



The number one reason why goals are quickly tripped, tossed to the hard ground and thrown out of commission is because of two bullies on the block nicknamed Wait and See.



We spend too much valuable time waiting to see if an attempt is worth investing more energy in rather than leaping on the giant bull and riding it for eight seconds. Your system is no different than a vender stacking goodies inside the candy machine—it looks its best when all those fresh pieces of chocolate are begging for your bucks. When it begins to look empty so are your feelings, then suddenly the vendor calls up and says, “Not coming to your place for another month.”



That’s how you feel on the inside each time you set aside a simple project.



Stop waiting for life to change! In time you’ll be begging for it to stop inviting newer things. Move your player piece ahead three steps on the Candyland board and make way for the happier you because goals are being met.



Once within the system of reaching approachable accomplishments always keep in mind, no goal should be larger than one months time. Take my new book for instance: The first step is to get the idea out of my system, no grammar check, spell check or opinions from family and friends; get it on the face of a computer first. Step two: once the beginning middle and end are put into play with all other things that make it great, set it aside for two weeks and become the reader not the writer. As the reader you’ll be able to identify areas or Arroe-isms that make you shake your head side to side like Scooby Doo trying to solve a mystery. One read through, then hand it off to the editor. You’re no longer part of the project, move on to the cover design and or ways you will market yourself.



You can’t be everything at one time. One month then poof…it’s something new or you look for ways to break up the project by way of making it a success story. If you spend too much time fixing and re-fixing you’ve given birth to a perfectionist who is never happy. They get tired and move on to something new without ever completing a dream.



Simple project lists work…put it into play while figuring out newer ways to steal my art.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

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