As I was thinking about a topic for this month's column, I was struck by the fact that a woman who taught me a lot about life and probably helped shape many of my perspectives, passed away three years ago last week...my Aunt Mary.
A very important person in my life, my Aunt Mary, who has passed on, taught me a lot as a kid that all of us should embrace in our quest for happiness, sanity and productivity.
JELLO
It's fitting that her wisdom would appear in my management writing since my business philosophy of Do business on your own terms! (R) and family first was heavily influenced by her. She raised 5 good kids and was able to maintain her humor, sanity and a positive outlook on life even during her last few years when she was quite sick.
Not one to waste time, or mince words, she was always ready with comfort, advice or admonishment when necessary. When the kids would get on her nerves and she needed a short break, she was famous for assigning the task, "Go nail Jello(R) to a tree or something, will you!" Clearly, this is a task that is pointless, fruitless and a visual that is just plain funny.
On the serious side though, how many of us can't find the humor in things, can't figure out a way to take a break or can't overcome everyday stress because we are spending way too much of our time focused on pointless and fruitless things? Is it because of some sense of misguided responsibility that we HAVE to do these things? Do we do them because we have allowed someone else to override our priorities with theirs? Or is it because we simply haven't stopped to think about and separate what's important from all of what I call, LifeClutter(c)?
Make yourself a promise that for one week you will force yourself to look at all of the things you 'have to do' every day and ask yourself, is this productive or pointless? Am I doing this because I truly have to or because it's a habit I can't break? Is it LifeClutter(c)?
One of my favorite questions is, "What could happen if I don't do this?" Based on the answer my follow-up question is, "Do I care about that outcome?" If the outcome isn't a problem, then I have the freedom to decide if I'm going to take action or not...ahh. Cleaning out the LifeClutter(c).
If you actually make time to do this exercise and examine how you spend your time, you will quickly find that just like that closet full of clothes you'll never wear again, there are a lot of things that can be given away (delegated) or simply discarded that will free up space for the good stuff.
Although nailing Jello(R) to a tree might be an amusing time waster, and it should probably become a YouTube video, I suggest that there are a lot of other unproductive time wasters in each of our lives that deserve to be cleaned out and thrown away so that we can fill life with the good stuff.
Nailing Jello To a Tree and Other Unproductive Endeavors JELLO
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