Blog > Feeling Stupid
So how stupid was I feeling yesterday afternoon, standing with my 9 year old daughter on the side of the motorway waiting for an AA tow truck, having put petrol in my diesel car. Extremely!
I’ve never done it before and, as the AA man politely pointed out, I’ll never do it again.
My daughter didn’t get to gymnastics (sorry Thea!) and as I stood there shame-faced I was more angry with myself for breaking my main New Year’s resolution, not even two weeks into the year.
It was: To slow down and do less, and in doing so achieve more.
Why did I put petrol in a diesel car? Because I was running late and trying to achieve too much in too short a time. So, I’ve taken my foolish mistake as a wake up call to stick to my resolution.
To do that I’ve broken it down further – I realised on the hard shoulder, as the lorries thundered past me, that it was a bit too woolly for me to act upon.
Here is what I am going to do, and I invite you to do the same, either with a resolution or goal that you have.
- Be clear about why you want to achieve your aim – e.g. for me it is to have a calmer way of being, a greater sense of achievement and to enjoy work and life more.
- Think about what is working that you don’t want to change – e.g. setting myself daily and weekly goals works well.
- Think about what you need to change – e.g. I can tend to set myself too many goals. Instead of trying to achieve 5 big things a day, I will set myself only 3 (this feels very indulgent!).
- Think about the benefits of this change – e.g. I will have more time to think, and read and plan. This will lead to greater clarity and direction, which will help me achieve more of the right things. I will also feel calmer and have time to do the other things I want to.
- Lastly, think about how to keep yourself on track (and off the hard shoulder with an expensive garage bill looming) e.g. when I start to rev up and do too much I feel tightness around my shoulders, I will use the next couple of weeks to learn to ‘listen’ for that feeling and make myself stop, think and slow down when I feel it.
With all this in mind I will leave you with a quote by the productivity guru, David Allen “You can’t get as much done in 12 months as you think you can, but you can get more done in 5 years than you think you can”