clarify my priorities

My life seems to have boiled down to certain things, family, friends, martial arts, guitar, the spirit world, mind, body, spirit, mind, body, soul. That’s clear enough to me.

This goal seems to be met. I realized it today when I had a series of phone conversations with key people. The period of introspection that I’ve been in while writing the resumes, creating the portfolio, recovering from the accident, and recovering from the burnout is now behind me.

I’m pretty clear about what my priorities are, at the moment. The time of confusion seems to be over.

Organizing things is a way of prioritizing. Throwing things out is a way of prioritizing. So doing a little “space management” every week is an important way of keeping my priorities at the top of my attention.

It’s time to renew my use of 43 Things to move me towards my goals. That starts with a re-ordering, and I think I’ve made the best one yet (aided by Robot Co-Op’s sexy new drag-n-drop interface).

Much as I’d like these periods of introspection to come on a predictable schedule (at seasons’ change, for instance), they do come in their own good time.

Keeping clear priorities is an ongoing process. Most of the time, it’s The Question that hides in the back of your mind, then ambles out when it thinks you’ve got time for it.

You’re out biking along the beach, let’s say, and though you should be focusing on your breath and the hazards of the path – heavily touristed at this hour – out it comes unbidden.

It seduces you by presenting first An Insight. A new angle on the questions that consume you. Then once it’s caught your attention, it draws you in with Ripples and Ramifications, which resonate with the part of you that everyone says is your gut, but which seems in your case to prefer a location just slightly north of Gut.

Just as your romance with Implication is proceeding nicely, however, that Question throws you a curve by introducing The First Shadings of Doubt (aka Neurosis): What unintended consequences should you consider and can they be avoided? Do you have what it takes to commit yourself to that change in priorities? To the point where you want to just leave everything as it is.

You know. When the conversation is consistently going in this direction, it’s time to take the reins in hand, whatever the position of the stars, Horatio.

You must just sit down and go through the inventory, do a lot of entry writing and changing of the order of 34-Things things.

And for me, it’s That Time again.

Clarify my priorities

My current highest priority is finishing my new portfolio. After that, I’m going to research places to live, so I can decide where I want to go.

Other priorities include keeping up my bike riding, walking and lifting weights, keeping my spirits up as I go through this time of transition, and pare down, sort and organize my material possessions preparatory to the move.

It’s a good start. It’s as good a representation of my priorities as any, right now.

I’m tweaking the words of my goals as I go along. This goal used to be “manage my time better.” I discovered if I just edit the goal, I can let it evolve. It is now, “clarify my priorities.”

I realized that if I look at how I spend my time, I am not mismanaging it. Actually, it reflects my real priorities. I am evolving those, too, and I’m hoping the change of wording will help me track it better.

I’ve been procrastinating today’s chore by IM-chatting with my ex, browsing around on this site and reading some of the Sunday papers. Time to get down to it! I want to have a new picture by 4pm.