Image by artist Keri Smith
I’m in Chicago with JINX for the Chicago Improv Festival (we perform tonight at 10pm), and just had lunch with a friend, Marsha, who’s part of the New Leaf Theatre here. She’s curating a show of theirs that opens tonight, and mentioned that the question that’s guiding all of their work this season is, “How do we build a future from a present we didn’t expect?”
I love that, because really, it’s asking: How do we live a meaningful life, when we aren’t in control?
Back at the condo we’re renting, I was checking some of my favorite blogs, and came across the wonderful quote and image above, courtesy of artist Keri Smith, and I started thinking: I’m sick of goals. Sick of lists and bullet points and writing out our 5-year plans. Sure, there’s a place for such structure, but too much of it is suffocating. Our spirits need to romp about and find their way and get messy, and we can’t predict – or control – the future, no matter how religiously we maintain our planner pads.
For a while now, I’ve thought that so-called “time management” is, in many ways, a time suck, because it slurps up the energy that we could be putting towards more creatively satisfying endeavors… or, less than endeavors: more creative play.
I’m not calling for anarchy. As with so many things, the answer lies in moderation, and self-awareness. I’m just sounding a cautionary note against the goal-setting, time-managing, plan-making culture of corporations creeping into us as individuals and posing as a fool-proof solution to the confusion that is life.
Just a few light thoughts on a Friday afternoon…. ;)
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
me over from Creative Liberty since DC is right around the corner from Southern Maryland. Totally agree with this post…look forward to browsing through and seeing more in the future!
Thanks Tammy! Welcome :)
A nice cautionary note that time management can become a convenient way to avoid doing anything worthwhile … by creating the warm feeling of accomplishment without confronting the things themselves. Well done.
Great post! I’ve always kind of rebelled against over-scheduling, I’m more of a go-with-the-flow type. Occasionally feel guilty about this, like I could be more productive with my time. In my mind, I switch back and forth between my old self, my current self and my future self, and ask myself, do I think my future self would think that my current self wasted time and didn’t accomplish enough? Invariably the answer is that I’m not wasting time if I’m enjoying my life, if I’m open to possibilities, if I’m living in the moment. Because, really, that’s all we’ve got. This very moment.
Gasp! A DC resident, rebelling against goals and rigid time management strategies?!! Whatever will the Franklin consultants and corporate drones think?
Thanks for helping me feel a bit less guilty for sometimes taking the road less managed.
Thanks everyone for the great comments – so glad these ideas resonate. Mike, the (faux) “warm feeling of accomplishment”, and Jen: “the road less managed” – brilliant :) Chana: “I’m not wasting time if I’m enjoying my life, if I’m open to possibilities, if I’m living in the moment. Because really, that’s all we’ve got. This very moment” – exactly.
You must log in to post a comment.