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Little voice, completion and big goals – a possible lethal combination if not watched carefully.

Posted on March 28th, 2007 by Wilma (2 Responses)

For a period of time I usually woke up with a cramped feeling and a voice which said; “Oh no, another day where I need to find important things to do to reach that big goal of building a boat by 2008”.

 

So before I was out of bed I was stressed and ready for another extremely bad hair day.

 

Mondays were the worse. Monday is the day that John and I are having our planning meeting for the week and he would expect me to appear with the ‘to do’ list for the week.

Most of the time I didn’t have one as I found I couldn’t think of worth while things to put on the list or if I had one it was as long as my arm and the sight alone frightened me to death.

 

Both ways the list was a problem.

That I was stuck with how to accomplish big things did please something no end though. My ‘little voice’!

My little voice was in heaven.

My little voice couldn’t believe its luck; what a wealth of discomfort to feed on. And feeding it did and I listened.

 

No surprise then that the whole boat project became scary instead of exciting. After each day my little voice and I expected some important progress towards the boat project. Looking back on the day we never could see anything worthwhile achieved. Bugger.

 

This could have been the end of an exciting life. I could have listened and given up.

Instead I learnt about completion and I got the measure of that pesky little chatterbox.

 

This helped:

“How do you eat an elephant?”

“One bite at a time”.

 

I understand that completion is just doing what can be done today and being at peace with what can be accomplished from where you are at right now. If the Boat Show is on, I go to the Boat Show. I decide to make that week a boat week and do everything I can that is related to boats. I say it is okay to be fully focused on boating even if it feels to my little voice that going to the Boat Show is no big deal. However last year we found at the show people with a tremendous boat. Completion was following up with those people and keeping in contact. Now we are still reaping the benefits of that great connection.

So during the Boat Show week I had a good time. I was at peace with what I was doing AND I wasn’t under pressure as I didn’t expect to have a boat at the end of that week!

 

My ‘little voice’ did, but that is its problem!

The theory of completion is explained on the Time page of Trek Education.

2 Comments to “Little voice, completion and big goals – a possible lethal combination if not watched carefully.”

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  1. Karen Finlayson says:
    March 28, 2007 at 12:48 pm

    Ah Wilma – the completion merry go round – why is it that your comment comes at exactly the right time?! Over the past 6 months I have been a completing machine – but lately – ie last week and now – it has all come to a screeching halt… I have a list and every time I think about it my stomach churns because I havent done things on it! So why did the machine come to a halt? I dont know – but I think it has to do with not having a clear goal in mind – a big goal can be scary and too much to take on – and as you said its always easier to take small bits at a time. The opposite is if you dont have any goals at all! This is my position – no clear focus means I have no clear driver… hmmm time to reassess …. thanks Wilma for forcing my pertubation!

    [Reply]
  2. Wilma says:
    March 28, 2007 at 4:54 pm

    Hey Karen, pertubate on, get your pertubation muscles going. I know it is good for you, you have done it before and boy did you come out of it full force.

    [Reply]

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