Ordinary Priorities

Today

If I were asked for one thing that brought me pleasure today, I would not hesitate to proclaim my daily 20-minute, there-and-back, walk to Monogram Cafe for my large, black Americano. The beauty of the gardens and trees en route brings me joy.  My Americano brings me joy. Walking with my friend back and forth brings me joy. You can see that my day gets off to a wonderful start. Each morning since arriving in Calgary, I walk the same loop, and I am immersed in what I see and feel on these beautiful mornings.

Here is an excerpt from Oliver Burkeman’s book regarding priorities:

“If you try to find time for your most valued activities by first dealing with all the other important demands on your time, in the hope that there’ll be some left over at the end, you’ll be disappointed. So if a certain activity really matters to you—a creative project, say, though it could just as easily be nurturing a relationship, or activism in the service of some cause—the only way to be sure it will happen is to do some of it today, no matter how little, and no matter how many other genuinely big rocks may be begging for your attention.

After years of trying and failing to make time for her illustration work, by taming her to-do list and shuffling her schedule, Jessica Abel saw that her only viable option was to claim time instead—to just start drawing, for an hour or two, every day, and to accept the consequences, even if those included neglecting other activities she sincerely valued. ‘If you don’t save a bit of your time for you, now, out of every week,’ as she puts it, ‘there is no moment in the future when you’ll magically be done with everything and have loads of free time.’

This is the same insight embodied in two venerable pieces of time management advice: to work on your most important project for the first hour of each day, and to protect your time by scheduling “meetings” with yourself, marking them in your calendar so that other commitments can’t intrude. Thinking in terms of “paying yourself first” transforms these one-off tips into a philosophy of life, at the core of which lies this simple insight: if you plan to spend some of your four thousand weeks doing what matters most to you, then at some point you’re just going to have to start doing it.”

Priorities

And that is exactly what I started since arriving in Calgary and will continue when I return to Ottawa.  Walking every morning and appreciating the beauty in my neighbourhood.

What is a priority of yours that you don’t make time for? As I once again made a realistic and heartfelt plan of my priorities, I soon discovered that I have more to do than can be done. I understand that I can’t possibly do everything I want to do. So what more needs to come off my list?

Priorities change as we live a long time. Our awareness of time changes. Creative endeavours loom much larger in my life now than they did 20 years ago. I am so curious about time and seasons, and I want to make the best of it.

Reminders

The wonderful thing for me in getting to teach and write about Ikigai Ryoho is that I get reminded of what matters to me, and things I can implement that are helpful in my circumstances. In fact, what I really do is offer reminders of things we know but may have forgotten or a different perspective on a challenging situation that may prove helpful. What I don’t offer is a formula, prescription, or permanent peace of mind.

As Dr. Shoma Morita told his students, I have something better than peace of mind – rather, we can cultivate a curious, flexible and adaptable mind, a mind that can adapt itself to changing circumstances.

This kind of mindset provides confidence to manage whatever comes up. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, or that we need to like it, or even that we can change the circumstances.  It does mean that we can distinguish between what is controllable by us and what is not, consequently investing our efforts into the things we can do something about.

We can each do something about things that matter most to us, although we don’t always make the time. And the question itself is different for each of us. The reason I bring it up is to remind us that it is easy to neglect what matters most. We so often postpone important, small, and large priorities, with the false notion that sometime down the road we will find the time to do these things that are meaningful to us.

So, I invite you to make room in your life for something you love and then follow through. And unlike Jessica Abel in the story I quoted above, we don’t need to jump in with one or two-hour commitments. Start small and see if you can make one of your priorities sustainable. And adjust accordingly. Fifteen minutes a day (dailyish) sounds good for starters.

Notes:

1) I am off to Red Deer and Edmonton tomorrow – back to Calgary on Sunday. Lucky me, my friend will be accompanying me on this road trip and doing all the driving. It is a gift to have such special company.

2) Somehow I was drawn to this unusual site of green grass, a large tree and four tulips. It makes me smile each time I walk past. The banner picture is older and not the right season but I always enjoy this typical Alberta scene. 

3) I am hoping that all your surprises this week will be good ones and that you soak up the sun, the fragrances and the beauty. All my best wishes and thank you dear readers, for coming by. Warmly, Trudy