Deadlines (Podcast)
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
well, having lunch with a good friend, I was discussing a major decision I had recently made in my life and the 365 day deadline that I had placed on myself to see it through. Why Air Year? She asked why the deadline? It all. Her question uttered simply, but deliberately stopped me in my tracks. The answer came to me forcefully and unexpected. In a moment of clarity, I realized something about myself that I hadn't been able to. After years of self reflection. The deadline was my way of dealing with fear. Deadlines are the natural consequence of living in society. The more advanced a society, the more of them we face. There are deadlines that we can't escape production schedules at work bills that need to be paid leases that must be honored warranties that expire these deadlines at order and focus to our lives and keep society humming along. As annoying as they may seem, just imagine the alternative. But there are deadlines that we impose on ourselves that don't serve any obvious purpose. We come up with many practical reasons why they're necessary, but if we question them honestly, we gain insight into what's really driving us, and many times what's really driving us is the fear that we will have given up too much for too little in return. Time and effort are the two things we can never get back, which is why no one wants to give them away without some type of assurance that it will pay off deadlines create the illusion of an escape hatch that will limit how much of ourselves will sacrifice to pursue our intended goal. They allow us to get out before we lose too much, while keeping our sense of responsibility for failure at arm's length. Hey, at least I tried. One problem with this is that instead of freeing US deadlines contraption into a situation that no longer fulfills us, when we think about moving on, we remind ourselves that we promised to stick it out for another X amount of time, and we stay stuck honoring her self imposed time restraint. Another problem is that our self imposed deadlines can lead to frustration if we honor them against our better judgment and our expectations aren't met. We get angry at ourselves for wasting our time and at others for not honoring our efforts and fulfilling our needs. We feel let down, and this negative energy holds us back from trying again, limiting our future opportunities to combat this cycle. We should keep in mind that it's OK to live with our choices so long as we're happy and fulfilled, even if we have yet to reach any goal. We should also remember that we can always walk away from a situation if we're unhappy and that it's neither irresponsible nor selfish to do so. So what about commitments? The ability to live up to what we say we're going to do establishes trust in his vital to any interaction, personal or otherwise. But we're under no obligation to honor a commitment that no longer serves us. That puts us at risk or there isn't being met with an appropriate response. Whether it's a treaty, an alliance, a marriage or an employment contract, we can and should ask ourselves periodically if it's still in our best interest to stay the course on. We have every right to move on if need be. We're never really trapped in any situation. There's always another option or many, and accepting our right and More importantly, our responsibility to choose empowers us to lead the lives that we want frees us from expectations in frustration and frees us from the fear of lost time. It makes personal deadlines obsolete. It's your life. Live it.