I think this is a recurring theme for all of us and don't suppose I'm offering any new insight, but isn't it amazing how time flies even as it drags on?
This has probably been one of the longest weeks of my brief life thus far, and it's not even noon on Wednesday. Maybe weeks tend to feel long when you never catch your breath over the weekend before...
All of this dragging on, of course, is also part of the natural progress for the end of a semester. We've got less than 4 weeks left, now, and that means most of the little assignments are over and all the big ones are looming large. My first big deadline is next Monday and don't think for a second I'm not far too aware of how much I've got to do by then. So why isn't the week flying by? One would think I'd be so rushed that I'd be running running running until I suddenly realized it was 11 and I ought to think about catching a few hours of sleep. But instead, time is eeking by. I feel as if I am genuinely living every second with a consciousness of what impact the passing of that second may have on my life. So here I've invested give-or-take 6,000 seconds in contemplation of the passing time because I've become so darned aware of it that I can't help but turn my attention to it. And that, of course, prevents me from doing the things that would allow me to have less stress associated with all these little seconds.
Vicious cycle. But then, what isn't? It's ll just one eternal round of life-as-we-know it.
On an entirely different topic, I've had all sorts of bizarre memory-images of the old Smith Family Living Center at BYU in the last few weeks. I had class there once or twice during my undergrad, but it was knocked down and built over years ago. There's a part of that building that I can't quite picture clearly anymore and it's about driving me crazy. Was it one big room or several small ones? Step down or up? Or maybe it was just another hallway with a few offices... Whatever it was, my mind's eye seems to be suddenly fixating on it and I haven't the foggiest why. See my point? Another vicious cycle. We have so very little control over our own brains, let alone our time...what in the world will be subjected upon us over the course of eternity?
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
There's something to be said...
...for being a lady. I've only recently discovered this one. Shocker, eh? But it's none the less true. About three weeks ago, my roommate started lecturing me--"If you'd act a little more proper, I swear you could have any guy you want." Ok, try me. The result: I'm not allowed to get really comfortable or have my elbows on the table, but I've been out on an amazing date! Go fig!
...for prioritizing in reverse. Let me review this principle if you haven't read all my entries and encountered this before--you've got this BIG thing coming up in your life, like the biggest ever. It haunts your dreams. You feel intense guilt doing anything else because it means you're neglecting preparation for that one BIG thing. So make yourself a list. What else do you have to do? I mean the little things that you've probably been back-burnering for months now. Ok, rank these things. The BIG thing is #1 and let's say you've got 20 things total. Ok. Now reverse the list and start doing everything, in order, with a very realistic idea of how much time each thing will take. You probably won't sleep for the next few days, but when the BIG thing is over, you've not only eliminated the pressure of that one responsibility but also all the other little things that just quietly haunt you. Granted, it won't take you more than a couple days to have a new list of 20 things to back burner. Take a week off and then lather, rinse, repeat.
...for cultivating an ability to smile no matter what. It's simply a scientific fact that those who can keep a light optimistic attitude will go through life with greater ease and satisfaction, no matter the trial. Why's this one on my mind? I just defended my MA thesis proposal. Two hours of being grilled by one particular professor on every detail of the research design, which he, in essence, found boring and inapplicable. I went into those two hours knowing he would do it, too. So I just smiled (to myself, granted) and decided to bend and flex instead of letting him belittle me. To his credit, he handled well having a student get a little cheeky with him. =) And in the end, I showed myself just flexible enough to change that we worked out a whole new plan that looks rather remarkably like what I proposed a year ago and had completely shot down. Hmmm...so if I come up with it, it's crap, but if you come up with the exact same thing, it's academic and appropriately challenging and insightful. Amazing.
...for prioritizing in reverse. Let me review this principle if you haven't read all my entries and encountered this before--you've got this BIG thing coming up in your life, like the biggest ever. It haunts your dreams. You feel intense guilt doing anything else because it means you're neglecting preparation for that one BIG thing. So make yourself a list. What else do you have to do? I mean the little things that you've probably been back-burnering for months now. Ok, rank these things. The BIG thing is #1 and let's say you've got 20 things total. Ok. Now reverse the list and start doing everything, in order, with a very realistic idea of how much time each thing will take. You probably won't sleep for the next few days, but when the BIG thing is over, you've not only eliminated the pressure of that one responsibility but also all the other little things that just quietly haunt you. Granted, it won't take you more than a couple days to have a new list of 20 things to back burner. Take a week off and then lather, rinse, repeat.
...for cultivating an ability to smile no matter what. It's simply a scientific fact that those who can keep a light optimistic attitude will go through life with greater ease and satisfaction, no matter the trial. Why's this one on my mind? I just defended my MA thesis proposal. Two hours of being grilled by one particular professor on every detail of the research design, which he, in essence, found boring and inapplicable. I went into those two hours knowing he would do it, too. So I just smiled (to myself, granted) and decided to bend and flex instead of letting him belittle me. To his credit, he handled well having a student get a little cheeky with him. =) And in the end, I showed myself just flexible enough to change that we worked out a whole new plan that looks rather remarkably like what I proposed a year ago and had completely shot down. Hmmm...so if I come up with it, it's crap, but if you come up with the exact same thing, it's academic and appropriately challenging and insightful. Amazing.