Photo by Kevin Dooley
I wrote this post already. I wrote it on Saturday night, and it was a doozy of a post. One of those great posts that just slips from my fingers to paper like water. It said everything I wanted to say in just the way I wanted to say it. Then it disappeared.
Enter frustration and anger.
I kick myself for not making sure to save it carefully. I can find everything else I was working on at the same time, but this one Very Important Post? Gone.
What was it about? Get this. It was about forging order and balance in a world that will never be truly under control.
It all started Saturday night as I was catching up on blog reading. I have a section in my Google Reader called Inspirational Blogs.
Blogs To Help You Find Yourself In 10 Easy Steps
50 Inspirational Sayings To Help Let Go Of Attachment, Find & Open Your Heart Shakras
How To Break Free From Bad Habits & Learn To Rule the World.
It’s not that I don’t find value in posts such as these. Websites like Leo Barbauta’s Zen Habits and Chris Gillebeau’s The Art of Nonconformity are great. You’ll always find great information to help you reorganize, order and breath through difficult spots.
What frustrates me about them is they give the impression that the writers of those articles are always under control of everything in their lives. From what I read, I’d believe they exercise every day, meditate, do yoga, finish their work, get the best deals on all flights. Their kids never
whine. Their meals, always balanced and their inboxes always empty.
And maybe they do, but not me. Not even close.
One Advice Cannot Not Fit All
I remember reading on Tim Ferris’ website how the number one rule of keeping order in your e-mail box is never use it as a file cabinet. All of mine are file cabinets.
Me? I have a to do list a mile long and I probably spend more time than I should searching for things I should have put away where they were supposed to go. Only I wasn’t really sure where they were supposed to go because my to do list has so many variables, each item would go in a place of its own, which doesn’t really organize anything. It only forces me to add Organize Files to my to do list.
Perhaps there are many people who are able to find that serene sense of order that eludes me. I have simply come to the conclusion that I must accept the chaos and learn to exist with it.
Thus, I have developed:
My Own Personal Rules of Dealing With Chaos & Imperfection.
1. There will always be more to do.
2. It will all eventually get done.
3. That which doesn’t get done, probably didn’t need to be done
in the first place.
4. If I forget something, it won’t matter too much.
5. If it does matter a lot, I will deal with it.
Case Study: One Day In the Life of Leigh
Today, Noah took Lila to school only to find today she has no school which made having our regular Monday morning meeting over Skype with an education consultant in NY difficult. So we set Lila up in our bedroom with a movie – proving exactly how fantastic Mr Fox can actually be. Then the dog starts barking halfway through. Lila sweetly lets him in the house when she
comes into the kitchen to pour herself another bowl of cornflakes. I put him on my lap in an attempt to calm him down. It doesn’t work. Then our internet gets fuzzy.
Meeting ends early because of all the noise and our internet line goes completely down. The dog, somehow miraculously shits on the floor in the five minutes he was in the house even though he was on my lap most of the time. I revive the internet and go to publish my amazing article written Saturday night only to find it has disappeared.
Bottom line, no matter how much I get under control, I will never be able to get my head around everything. There will always be something that goes beyond my capacity.
But it is not the end of the world, and I am not perfect.
And that is fine with me.
P.S. If I ever do find my first, wonderfully perfect article, I’ll be sure to post it here.
Loading tweets...
