Week 7 of 52:
This week I had a couple focuses that I journaled about:
1. Mastering Daily Transitions
If I made a list of all the things I need to do each week, there would be a lot of opposing things on that list:
-Work vs rest
-Social vs alone
-Out vs in
-Think vs do
-Consume vs be bored
Hereās something I wrote in my journal this week:
āNowās the time when I need to transition from what I was doing to what Iāll be doing next - and transitions are hard. I think my addiction to social media (and consumption in general) manifests itself most during these transition times.ā
I wasnāt journaling about big transitions (like switching jobs, or moving, or changing my habits), I was journaling about small, everyday transitions - like switching between two tasks.
It seems that whenever I finish one task, my brain instinctively picks up my phone and opens social media or some other app. Itās as if Iām unable to accomplish something without taking a break afterwards. That feels ridiculous to me! Doing laundry for 10 minutes ISNāT a huge accomplishment, and I want to be able to get it done and keep moving so that maybe I can experience some bigger accomplishments later in my day.
Practically, itās like walking up 1 flight of stairs (say, 10 steps) and then taking a break for a few minutes while I recover. I want to be fit enough to walk up 100 flights of stairs!
I think the #1 thing stopping me from experiencing big accomplishments are the substantial breaks I take after every little completed task in my day.
2. Donāt Fund A Childās Fantasy
Recently, I was talking with a friend about their dreams. This person is only a few years younger than me and I could tell from the way they were talking that other people had belittled or discouraged their vision for the future. Itās as if those other people thought my friendās vision was a fantasy.
I believe there is a difference between a childās fantasy and a young adults dream.
Iāve met 40 year olds that seem like children, and Iāve met 10 year olds that think like young adults (you might say they have an āold soulā). That is to say, 40 year olds can live in various fantasies. Whereas a bright young person can absolutely set their eyes on promising, albeit difficult to achieve, goals.
Age does not mean much in this conversation.
This is all just language, what IS the difference between a fantasy and a dream?
I think a fantasy in life constitutes something that leads someone nowhere. There are very little actual benefits to putting time into a fantasy besides the sheer enjoyment of living in your head.
A dream is wildly different. I recently read the book The Magic Of Thinking Big and I would highly recommend it to anyone. We donāt have dreams because we want to live in our heads, we have dreams as a vision for our future or the future of the world. Dreaming is thinking beyond current reality, and it's unfortunate seeing people get discouraged when they share a respectable dream.
One personās dream can be another personās fantasy, and the opposite is true. The difference lies in whether you have strategies and tactics.
So not just ādonāt fund a childās fantasyā but try to develop a child into a young adult with a dream. One is wasting their time, the other has direction.
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Here's a weird moment from this week's journal:
