focus

Countdown New Zealand Day 18

05/19/2020 by John 1 Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.

Yesterday I completed an event I’m going to call the 12-Hour To Do Relay. From 6 am until 6 pm, I ran a lap of about a mile. After completing the lap, I had to spend the remainder of that hour working on my To Do list. This mostly involved checking off items in preparation for moving back to New Zealand.

It was a rainy day and the trails I was running became streams at times. I had to get used to the sensation of putting on wet socks and shoes every hour on the hour. By the end, I ran 14.5 miles and scratched 18 items off my to do list — well worth the small discomfort of putting on squishy shoes and soggy shorts.

This idea was inspired by a YouTube video I stumbled across. In it, Beau Miles completes a marathon and gets a whole lot done by following the same formula I outlined above for 24-hours. This was my original plan, but I backed down to the 12-hour version because the weather was not ideal and I figured I could maximize some of the benefits of the activity while minimizing the downside of being awake for 24-hours.

For me, this experiment proved to be a great way to get things done. It provided structure to the day by breaking up the work I needed to do into small 40-45 minute chunks of time. Getting outside and moving my body between these task periods kept me energized and engaged. It also allowed me an opportunity to pause and plan what task to do next. I was able to stay busy and engaged all day because I knew that at 6 pm, I would be done and then could rest and do what I wanted the rest of the evening.

So if you’ve got an overwhelming list of things to do, I recommend making up your own To Do Relay. Let it be whatever works for you. A walk around the block every hour on the hour for however long you can spare will give the same benefits as running a mile. Or 15 minutes of yoga every hour followed by tasks. 4, 6, 12, or 24-hours, it doesn’t matter. Just do what you can and you might be surprised by how much you get done and how much fun you have while doing it.

Here’s the video that inspired me.

Too Many Inputs

05/18/2018 by John Leave a Comment

How often do I cede what to think about to others? The ubiquity of advertisements takes away much of my choice when it comes to where my attention goes. But often, I do have the choice. Every time I open up social media or subscribe to an email list, I am letting someone else decide what will occupy my mind for a period of time. It feels innocuous at the moment it is occurring but is it healthy when 12 or 24 hours later, I am still thinking about some random bit of information I let in?

The thing is, thoughts are little pebbles that roll downhill dislodging larger stones as they go until there is an avalanche. I often find myself buried in thoughts and unable to find the way out. An innocent glance at a Facebook post can lead to hours of researching a topic I never knew I had any interest in. Before I know it, the day is full of pursuing the thoughts and interests of someone else instead of my own.

I should be more mindful of how many times I open the door for new inputs to come in. I should be careful about the sources and ask myself if I am really getting any benefit from them. I want quality over quantity but I keep choosing quantity. I keep swimming in the shallow end of the pool of information when what I long for is to go deep.

Follow Your Curiosity

03/03/2018 by John Leave a Comment

I watched a talk by Elizabeth Gilbert called Flight of The Hummingbird: The Curiosity Driven Life. Ms. Gilbert was in the habit of giving people the advice to “follow your passion”. A Facebook comment had made her realize that unlike her, not everyone has an all-consuming passion, something they would do no matter what. When people without that drive hear the advice to “follow your passion”, it makes them feel deficient in some way. I am one of those people.

So much that I read or listen to says the same thing, to follow my passion, to pour all my energy into that thing that I feel most strongly about. But after years of trying to decipher what it is that I am passionate about, no one thing ever seems to rise to the surface for very long at a time. This has been an ongoing source of frustration for me for most of my adult life.

In her talk, Ms. Gilbert goes on to identify people like myself as hummingbirds. We flitter around from one thing to the next and in so doing, cross-pollinate things, bringing ideas to new places and people. It was comforting to watch the talk and have someone acknowledge that not everyone has an overriding passion that makes clear to them the direction their life should follow. Her advice for people like me is to let curiosity be our guide.

It is good to be a hummingbird. Sometimes following my curiosity leads to a dead end, and sometimes to something that shapes the direction of my life for years to come. Curiosity led me to try skateboarding, which introduced me to fascinating people, exciting music, and different ways of thinking about my life. It was curiosity that brought me back to Outward Bound after my course to see what it was like for the people who work here, and 20 years later, I’m still exploring where that pathway leads. Curiosity led to getting a degree in Web Technologies and though I’m still not certain what role it will ultimately play in my life, I liked learning something new. I am a curious ultra-runner, not super passionate about it, but curious enough to really enjoy it. The list could go on for a while.

My curiosity has not lead to fame, riches, or a lucrative career, but it has taken me on a fascinating journey, one that I could have never imagined before embarking upon it. I’ve lived in the Caribbean, hiked and biked in New Zealand, managed a restaurant, cooked for pilgrims walking across Spain, and so many other things. Curiosity is at the heart of what keeps me on the road, moving forward into a future that is unknown, but more interesting because of it’s uncertainty. When you don’t know what’s beyond the horizon, the possibilities are infinite.

I envy those who have a passion, but I don’t think I want to trade places with them. I have no idea what I’ll be doing even six months from now, and that uncertainty keeps me awake and alive, ever scanning my field of vision for what’s next, ever moving across the landscape of this life, occasionally getting stuck in some valleys, but eventually always finding the next mountaintop. Life is sweet, but I think even sweeter when I drink its nectar like a hummingbird.

If you liked this post, you may be interested in I Am a Multipotentialate

Based on a journal entry from 2.23.16