CALL me slow, but it just dawned on me what deadlines are really for, and how we have defeated its purpose our whole life because of procrastination and losing focus.
I can attribute this realization to my having very few deadlines now, and so I watched (at first fascinated and then worried and now getting back on the wagon) as my mind and body just wandered off without focus.
My whole adult life was ruled by daily deadly deadlines. I just realized that's not how it is in normal life.
There are tasks to be attended to, yes, but they don't get done by the end of the day. The implementation even takes weeks or months. In that kind of life, it's easy to lose focus. That's where many start to fail or fail to make it.
Deadlines breathing down your back are like whips to a horse's back.
Deadlines few and far between made fewer and farther by situations that require the action and are thus subject to the procrastination of others outside your sphere of influence (like a government office where you are applying permits from) make those whips barely remembered.
What happens next? More procrastination, less drive to do more, and the tendency to put the blame on others along the line of: we can't do anything else unless we have what we're applying for.
True, many important things, even the most important things may not be done, but there are many just as important that can be attended to.
I've been ruing about a certain project that has been left idle by forces beyond my control until I realized that the delay has in fact cleared my time to do more.
And so I did, and I'm feeling more fulfilled.
Crack your whip on yourself and see how much more you can do.
It's called discipline, and very few really have that. Are you one of the few or are you among the millions who have just let three more hours pass unnoticed?
Waking up yesterday, I realized I have fallen asleep exhausted without my meditation hour. As I rushed out to make up for that lost time, I was welcomed by adult cats demanding for their food and a squawling kitten. That sparked a series of activities associated with them.
Feed adult cats, change their water, do the same to the dog and realize that it's been weeks since her bath. Bathe dog. Heat water for kitten milk, bottle-feed kitten, clean cage, bring kitten cage outside for some sunshine. Change rags inside cage, realize that you no longer have chlorine to wash the used kitten rags with, take a bath to get ready to go to the mall to buy chlorine and do all errands. Stop.
I haven't meditated still. Drop everything. Do what needs to be done first - prayer and meditation, and then proceed. I just did, and now I'm off to the mall.
Indeed, it's easy to lose focus. Don't.