I drafted last week’s assignment to pick a start for moving another step forward with creating the life you want.  My pick, I was to take control over my time. For me, that means getting out of work at a “reasonable” time. How did I do? Not good.  I had to go back and read through the quotes I used last week. A few that jumped out at me and get me fired up again are: “You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” – Dr. Seuss   and “No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.” – Buddha.  This week… I have to start, again. I will try to keep in my every waking thought  “It’s never too late to become who you want to be. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Be real, how did you do last week? What did you pick for moving forward for Phase II? Was this a challenge worthy of saying it will move your life today to a new level? If not, or if you failed to live up to it, then maybe like me you need to hit the restart button and try again.

This Week’s Talk

There are a lot positives in A Christmas Carol and in the societal platitudes that the story promotes, and that I callout in the blog.  These build you into a solid person. Now, in phase II, we have to build on that. There is no mistaking the importance of foundations. That’s true for buildings, bridges and people. Following Scrooge’s lessons we built a solid foundation as a person and as a member of society. Now, Now, it’s about you, who you want to be, and building the pieces one by one so you can look back and be proud of the life you built. I think part of what I have to come to grips with… I got too comfortable. I will take a Mulligan for last week and change where I want to start on Phase II of Becoming Carl.  I built a decent Scrooge as part of who I am. Now, its time to pick up the pace to being the best Carl I can be. Maybe you are thinking, didn’t he say he is 65?  Yes, I did. No, it’s not too late.  I just looked down at my smart watch and see that I am off the pace I set for this race.  I still feel like I have more in the tank so it’s time to pick the pace up.      

Start small- a small change over time makes a huge difference. The earlier you start the smaller the changes that are necessary. A huge change, over time… may not be sustainable. Let’s go back and decide, if we are comfortable with the quality of Scrooge we became, now we are building you. I need to focus on supporting and continuing the Scrooge values and lessons I learned and adapted. I don’t want to move to a scorched earth, all about me model. That’s not what I want and not what Scrooge was teaching us. But I need to push myself more. Push others at work to do more and expect more and not compromise. I need to, as I tried last week, take control of my time by challenging where I spend it and making sure it aligns with my goals.  I need to dig and evaluate EVERYTHING I do with the thought process of what I am doing to that  I need to change, what I need to drop, and what I need to add.

This Week’s Assignment

While researching what I wanted to write this week, I ran into some song lyrics that I struggle with deciding whether I agree or whether they represent a lack of drive and personal ownership. The lyrics are:

We never had that much to do

So we just lay around in someone’s house

Someday I’ll have it all again

Just like way back when

Back then we’d sleep until the afternoon

And we’d just get up and go outside

Open a window, let the breeze blow in

Forget everything

Yea, those will be the days that I will be missing

When I’m old and when I’m gray and when I stop working

I hope that I can say

When all my days are done

We were just having fun

Lyrics from Way Back When by Kodaline

Her’s why I am not sure how I feel about this. At first pass it is sort of romantic to think about the carefree easy days of being young when we had few responsibilities and had the latitude to focus on having fun. Is having fun important? 100% absolutely but life has to be more than just having fun. Fun is important and I also hope that when I get to the end of the road, I can look back and say I had fun. I also hope I can look back and say I enjoyed the challenges I set for myself and that I was a good representation of Scrooge so that others will recall me as a good a person as the good ole city ever knew. My pendulum probably swung too far into the keep your head down, keep your nose to the grindstone and push forward side of being.  For me, I will push harder on both the “work” side of being Carl, and even more so, the fun side of life.

Your challenge, dig deep and be real with yourself about your foundation. No holds barred. If your foundation needs some shoring up then go back and work on your Scrooge elements. If its solid, great. Then it is time to build the house.  Pick that small change that you can do and sustain over time. Me, I am going to focus on bringing more joy into my life AND focus on not being comfortable at work.

See you next week…