It's new years eve. A general inertia and love of my nice comfy apartment, cats and online company, as well as a nice supply of foodstuffs, means that I have zero intention of leaving this sanctum into the wild crazy that is the public on this night of nights. I suspect if I try I could hear the fireworks from here. If I walked for 30mins I could even see them. But no. Staying here. Pretending that it shall be a night of quiet contemplation, of higher thoughts, when really it's just the typical night in having fun with what I have right here.
But in some attempt to wave a stick at the occasion, if not exactly a sparkler... bucket lists. Things to do. Go, on, let's use the term that you *only* ever use around this time of year... the New Years Resolutions. Before that cynical shrug, think again more laterally of what such lists are. They used to really depress me actually. I'd carefully, hopefully craft such a list, and... very quickly they became a list of "things I have not done" rather than "things I would like to do". Particularly on Mondays. Doing such a list for a Monday is like writing a list of things that won't happen.
But anyway, idly reading one of those lifestyle newspaper articles about seven things that successful people do before breakfast the concept of lists came up again... And the penny dropped; it's actually not about the list at all... it's about mentally planning stuff that might happen, mentally working through situations and tasks. So for me, although I can jump into things and react, and chop and change, and decide and negotiate on the fly, there are times when I would just like to have time to think. There are particular tasks that I do throughout my day that I would find myself wishing I had had time to think about it. And it hadn't occurred to me until I read that article that I hadn't actually *made* a time in my day to think. I now use my bus trip time with a notepad and paper and writing big crazy lists of everything, not worrying that I will only get through bits and pieces, but just enjoying the thinking time as I break them down into little bits.
Couple the idea of lists as thinking time, with a Bill Gates quote:
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
And take into account that this is, (well it was when I was writing it), New Years Eve, and I will be treating my resolutions as a great big bucket list of thinking. Which is actually quite hopeful. What can I do this year? What would I like to do within the next ten?
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