What have I done?

25/10/10

Hm. I’ve been a little lax on List Girl over the last couple of days. I actually had to put her on the list, to make sure I did it. 3 weeks to form a habit and all that. I guess I haven’t been writing her long enough to make her habitual.

It’s been about 7 weeks since I had full time employment and while I know there are a lot of people way worse off, it’s definitely challenging me, continually, on all sorts of levels. The see-saw of up days / down days is starting to weigh the same both sides and I’m sitting at one end with my legs dangling in the air.

Sure, the list is working for me. I’m deleting stuff off it. Working towards becoming more employable. Ticking off the gym sessions, keeping a nice house. But I’m pretty sure that there’s something else I should be doing to make the most of this time that sooner or later, I’ll wish I had back.

I had my MRI today. I get my results on Thursday. It’s my one year follow up to see what’s going on inside my head. I joke with the radiologist that they won’t find anything in there, but that’s just scared talk.

Maybe it was the scan that put me back in that place that makes me ask myself, what have I contributed? What have I done? What will I leave behind? Whatever it was, working with my current To Do certainly wasn’t helping me answer any of those questions.

You know that great idea that you came up with all by yourself? The great idea that you talk to your friends about; proudly, because it’s such a brilliant frikken idea? You dream about it and it’s potential; fast-forward to the future when it’s made you rich.

Yeah well if you haven’t done anything about it, join the L Club, that’s the L for LOSER not List Girl Club because it’s ideas like that, the ones you’ve got a good gut feeling about that are SURE to come back c/- someone else in the future. You’ll be sitting down watching TV one day and there it is, on You Tube or The Morning Show or TVSN or (how big are you dreaming?), OPRAH, changing the world or being the new fad, in any case selling like hot cakes and making someone else rich and/or famous and/or respected and/or envied. None of which I am going to achieve with “Gym Session - resistance” on my To Do.

How many people out there are wishing they’d done something about their brilliant idea because now it's someone elses?

HTP is a project I started with a hiss and a roar last time I was unemployed. It’s one of those projects that has heaps of potential, well, no, ok, reality check; it has no potential right now because I’ve done nothing with it.

Of course I’m not going to tell you what it’s about.

The point is, I’m moving it up the list. Sure, it’s a dream, but it’s a solid one. And I am of the school that if you believe it, you can achieve it. *

And like this post, you can only make it happen, by committing to do it. Small tasks designed to get you closer to a larger goal. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic* and Time Bound.

Whatever happens, I don’t want to be wishing I’d done something I felt was important, when I had the time. Or at least had a jolly good crack at it.

So, this morning my list looked like this:

To Do

Scans ready for MRI

Call Doctor Todes – change appointment

Pay first aid course

List Girl

Groceries

Write cover letter for bar work

Gym Session – resistance

Receipts to Medicare

Complete Barmax Course

Appointment made to see Accountant

Tax ready to go

Clean out kitchen drawer

I got some stuff done. Here it is now:

To Do

Write cover letter for bar work

HTP – Business Summary

Receipts to Medicare

Complete Barmax Course

Appointment made to see Accountant

Tax ready to go

Clean out kitchen drawer

Deadline end of week. Like I said, my short term list is ever changing. Is yours? If it’s not, then you’re not getting anything done.

*”If you believe it, you can achieve it.” should not be applied to unrealistic goals.  I’d love to have a body like Sophia Vergara from Modern Family, but it’s never going to happen. I’m just not built like that. I’ve seen it on Australia’s Got Talent, dancers who can’t. On Idol, singers who aren’t. I know people who say they’re musicians and they don’t play an instrument. Please check your dreams and tasks against the SMART criteria, paying particular and honest attention to the criteria REALISTIC and then get a second opinion. List Girl takes no responsibility for people who are in la-la land.