The Lonely Savage

Tomorrow is my birthday. It’s not a major one, but I’m getting one year closer to the big three-oh. That’s right, readers, I’m turning twenty-nine. If you’re reading this east of England, I’m already 29 at the time this is posted, thanks to the wonders of time zones. At the age of twenty-nine, Albert Einstein had already published four major texts. Alexander the Great had conquered all of Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia and was moving into Persia. Leonardo Da Vinci had already painted the Annunciation (Pictured to the right). What do I have to show for myself so far?

At least, that’s what I was asking myself earlier today. Sure; it’s not realistic to pit myself against Alexander the Great; I’m not about to go conquering Asia Minor any time soon, nor do I want to. Instead, I should try to ask myself one golden question; what am I good at and what steps do I need to take to actually use this skill for the best?

Enter my new Plan for Success.

I’d already started this when I created my habit forming schedule but realized that there was something missing. For a person to really be able to accomplish something, they need a deadline that has clear goals and is in the very near future. Otherwise we fall victim to Parkinson’s Law, work magically expanding and becoming more complex only to fit the deadline we’ve set up for ourselves. The deadline needs to be short, succinct, to-the-point and extremely actionable.

That said, here’s my suggestion for you for today. If you learn nothing else today, let this be it.

You know that list of things that you want to do? Yeah, that long list of things you’ve got in the back of your head or on a piece of paper. Maybe it’s hidden away in some directory on your hard drive. The list of things that you’ve always thought “Yeah, I’ll get around to it some day”. That list. Take it out right now and strike out everything that you won’t be able to do within the next 12 months. That’s right, remove everything that you can’t – in any way – have done in a year from now. The things that are left on the list; schedule them! Schedule them to be really soon, even! As soon as possible, just to get them over and done with. There’s no use procrastinating, just get the things over and done with and then move on with your life.

I know it’s easy to say “But I can’t, because …” – and there’s always a because, isn’t there? I mean, that’s why you haven’t gotten around to doing these things yet, right? Well, history shows that most often, the real ‘because’ is nothing but our old friend fear. We’re afraid of changing the dull – but safe! – monotony of our lives and replacing it with something new, interesting and possibly wonderful.

Don’t be the person who looks back on your life wishing you had done more. Plan to get it done today; you never know how much time you have left.