Blacklist

My To-Do List

Blacklist

I was looking at my computer screen on Monday morning.  My eyes were scanning my weekly calendar as well as everything on my To-Do List.  As I was doing so, my fingers danced across the keyboard to make a place for each item on the calendar.  My mind was racing through the week.  As it did so I had a revelation!

I was so intent with getting every thing done, getting each task finished that I could hardly wait for the week to be over!  The thought had nothing to do with difficulties or distaste.  It had to do with an insatiable need to get things completed.  That’s when it hit me!

I was no longer living my life!  I had become a task-completing machine.  My To-Do List, some how, some way, had morphed into a life-sucking Blacklist!

Well, to be honest it isn’t the list itself that had turned into something dark and nefarious.  It was the way I had begun to approach it, my manner of working toward my hoped for accomplishments and the people with whom I associate.  In short I had begun to rush through my life without notice of hardly anything except for the making of another check mark.  So, I began to take notice.

I noticed that there was an opportunity to stop my life from slipping away with little reflection on my part.  So, I decided to begin to take an active part in self-event management by becoming conscious and it has already made a difference.

The other night as I was working, I stopped to sit and talk face to face with two people I was working with.  The three of us talked for a few minutes without looking at our phones, checking messages or considering smart watches!  Can you imagine?  That small moment allowed me to discover how much I had in common with people I’ve been working with for several years, yet had never taken the time to really get to know them.  It created a new and deeper fulfillment from our work together.  Perhaps most importantly, it allowed me to live in the moment without fast-forwarding through the evening.

Are you fast-forwarding through your life as well?  Has your To-Do List become a Blacklist?  Are you constantly looking at a computer screen, smart phone, tablet or smart watch anxiously?  Are you ready to begin to live your life again?

Living for more than fifty years has taught me a few things.  Perhaps the most important thing age has communicated is the fleeting nature of our lives.  None of us live very long.  So, wouldn’t it be a shame for you and me to keep pressing the fast-forward button?

Let’s resolve to get off our own Blacklist!