2017 In One Word: Bullseye

Folks who’ve known me awhile, know that am a meanderer. A nomad in my head. My interests vary, my passions are diverse and the depth at which I pursue each is both shock inducing and inspiring. Yep, I can shock & awe and I promise you none of it is intentional. Most folks know that. It’s all encoded, I tell you. I don’t plan on having a finger in every pot, I just can’t

I don’t plan on having a finger in every pot, I just can’t not have a finger in every pot, though I must admit age has wizened me and am now keeping plenty fingers to myself. (Did that sound ok?)

The point of this is to say that I get distracted easily by anything worthy of distraction. Depending on how much it piques my curiosity, I fling myself with equal vigor and suck the darn thing dry to the bone before I move on to the next challenge/project.

It’s fun! It’s a blessing or a curse depending on the kind of person that you are or the mood that I am in.

I am indeed blessed to find interest in the various things that come my way, and also have the freedom and zeal to explore them. Then there is always the flip side of being cursed with the desire to start on a new one before the current project is complete or becoming somewhat of a master at what I have my foot in already.

Every once a while I introspect (not entirely with regret) and muse over what it would have been like if I stuck on with the kind of resilience that mountain goats exhibit. Perhaps I would have been “successful” in the way society regards it. Perhaps, that would also make me a very unhappy crab tied down in a cage.

Yet, I love this side of me.

That said, am not completely lost in the clouds and neither am I not aware of the repercussions of the unanchored mind, and it has taken a wee bit of effort and some conscious planning to stay glued to see a project through. The last few years have been incrementally successful in that regard. I have held on and I have seen most through. Yet, there is a nagging feeling that the quality of each work (or the process of getting from start to finish) could use a step up. Just a wee bit more efficient, a wee bit more precise, a wee bit more sure, with a lot less distraction.

It isn’t about doing MORE.

It is about doing LESS but with ACCURACY and DEPTH.

It’s about hitting that BULLSEYE as close as possible even if it takes a longer wait.

It’s about RAISING the bar.

…and this is what *I* came up with 🙂

2017 will be the year where:

I FIND (what I want to do)

I FOCUS (razor sharp with less distraction as possible)

I FIRE (with practiced deliberation and accuracy)

FIND:

This is where you will spend most of our time. You will introspect, get practical and honest and do some heavy duty deciding here. What is it that you really want to do? You can’t do all, it isn’t feasible or practical if you wanted to enjoy the process as well. It’s like going to our favorite restaurant and wanting to eat every juicy thing on the menu. We could. But we’d be stuffed and miserable immediately after gorging on all of it and may even be sick for a couple of days after that. So, yes, this is the place you spend 75% of the time.

List. Assess. Think double duty. Think long term. Think of how close (or not) it is to your heart. Think how important it is to do it in this time of your life. What would you give up to achieve that?

Scratch or elevate it accordingly. Narrow it down to the bare bones. One can’t have too many targets. Consequential, perhaps, but not all at the same time. One BULLSEYE at a time. 

FOCUS:

This is two part.

One is to find all that is there about what you want to get done. Background work, the roadmap, the support systems, the network, the work that you need put in. Refer to my earlier post on how I broke a goal down for more clarity. WRITE IT ALL DOWN 

Two is to remove all else that doesn’t help, support or take you one step closer to it. This is when you remove, physically (if you can) all that is a distraction. It can wait. If it didn’t wait and it’s moved right along, don’t worry, there’s another new shiny thing that’s coming along when you are ready and free.

FIRE:

So, we are at the final stage. You’ve identified what you want, done all the ground work for it and now it’s time to get cracking. This is probably the easy part if you’ve been diligent with the background to get here. Easy as in not easy per se, but at least now you are sure of the tunnel there in front of you, and all you have to do is keep moving ahead. It’s work but it’s unadulterated pure quality work. 

I am going to go out on a limb and quote Mr. Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and loosely use it here: “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” –  and say, when your path is sure, straight and known, then you will reach its end.

Finishing strong is not just that moment of reaching the pinnacle, but what it took for you to get to that point!

So, how am I going to do this?

I have no clue. Ok, just kidding! No, actually I was clear as mud when I came up with the personal statement and vision.

These things jump at you, and you love how accurately it fits into your scheme of things and how you envision your life (in short, romanticizing the notion) that one starts loving the concept. Then, of course, there’s the WORK that needs to get done for that fantasy to become a reality.

So I brooded some more and came up with a few resources that could help me achieve that BULLSEYE :

• Want it BAD. (It’s the step to achieving anything. How badly do you want it?)
• Do less. (It hasn’t been too bad saying no these days I had a long list of things I liked, wanted and needed to get done, and then mercilessly, I scratched most of them off keeping just the most necessary few)
• Limit all things that drain my time. (Social media is on a timer these days!)
• Try and make every action as deliberate as possible. (This I think is the most important. Know the WHY behind every action while keeping your eye on the time, and being sure that WHY is worthy?)
• Use of: Bullet Journal, Post-its, Phone Auto Reminders and Personal Accountability
• Being patient and kind with oneself. (This is crucial to not fall into either the self-pity/cynical/loser trap)
• Use of a Vision Board (which I plan to create and share over the next couple of weeks)
• Meditate. (So we start at a place of surety and calm (every day for 10 minutes)
• Treat the project as work. (As if someone’s actually paying you to work, sort of work)

This is how I am approaching my 2017. To up my ante, and to go where I should have gone but it’s better late than never. Right? 🙂

Maybe it will work for you too if that’s also the stage in life you are at. Or maybe you can tell me what’s your mantra this year, what is the emotion.word.sentiment that you will focus on to get to where you see yourself.