Ta- Done!!

    I have a friend who is absolutely passionate about what he’s chosen to do with his life.  Most days, I envy the hell out of him.  He’s charted his course and maintains his direction no matter the obstacle in his path.  Fire breathing dragons in the form of skeptical foundation managers, scrambling for how he’s going to make the next payroll, staff changes, debilitating health issues, doesn’t matter.  If he needs to live at the poverty level and forego his own paycheck to hire the best candidate for his team, that’s what he’ll do.  Hell, that’s what he’s done, and not for a month or two, but for years.  He’s decided what he feels the world needs to look like and he’s damn well not quitting until his vision is reality.

    I have another friend who is so personally fulfilled, who has so much joie de vivre that just being around her for an hour gives me a contact high for my own life that can keep me energized for days.  She’s smart, funny, passionate, has already picked her candidate for this year’s presidential election and can give you ten good solid reason’s for her choice.  
   
    The last friend I’m going to talk about is wildly successful.  No really.  He paid his own way through a private high school, worked a part-time job while doing it, helping his parents pay their mortgage, and made straight A’s in the highest level tract the school had.  He got through college in three years, again with straight A’s, followed a family tradition of military service, and then to top it off, got accepted to a top ten Ivy League Law School.  After spending the last fifteen year’s working for a couple of really big Tech companies you’d instantly recognize, he’s now consulting for hundreds of dollars an hour.  There have been times his expertise was so in demand that companies have paid him over a thousand dollars an hour for the information hanging out between his ears!

    I have wonderful friends who leave me feeling amazed, enthralled, a little inefficient and…a bit sad.

    Because my friends, for all their passion and drive and single-mindedness are never satisfied with the NOW of their lives.  My friend who got accepted to the top ten Ivy League Law School?  He didn’t even go to his graduation.  He felt it was more important to leave school as soon as possible and “start his career”.  My friend who’s so passionate about his chosen career he’ll live at or below the poverty line?  The last success isn’t nearly as important as the next thing on the list or the grant he didn’t get.  And my friend who’ll give me a contact high for life that lasts for a day?  She can’t seem to make up her mind about what she really wants to do with her life, just that whatever she just did wasn’t “it” and wasted her time.

    They each go through life with To Do lists as long as me, rapidly and maniacally checking as many things off the top of their list in a day as they can, and adding new items to the bottom just as quickly.  

    Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me a good list.  I usually color-code mine and create charts and graphs for how much I need to accomplish by what date to meet this or that goal.  I’ve gone through three Task Tracking software products this year trying to find the perfect one because very few products will tell me the one thing I want to know at the end of the week.  That is:  How much did I accomplish?  
I have to be able to keep track of my tasks so I know what the heck I need to do each day.  But, I also want to know, no, NEED to know, what I accomplished this week, this month and this year.  I can easily tell what I still need to do, but what keeps me going is knowing what I’ve accomplished.  

    I want to know what’s on my To Done List, or, as I like to call it, my Ta-Done! List.

    Get it? TA-DA! TA-Done!?

    Anyway.

    When I write, I keep track of how many words I typed during that session and also how many words I’ve typed in the book so far.  If all I do is look at how many I have left to type, I’ll run screaming from the room.  And let’s face it, that’s no way to live, and will probably scare the small children in my life.

    A couple of weeks ago I found a piece of software that will do this.  I can see what tasks are remaining, but I can also see what tasks are closed.  I love this feature.  Looking at everything I accomplished makes me feel like Rocky dancing at the top of the steps.  There are weeks when I’m especially productive that can even make me get up and do the Rocky dance, singing the music at the top of my lungs.

    Why, yes, people have been known to come to the door of my office and stare.  So?

    I mentioned my TA Done! List theory to my friends and they pretty much looked at me like I was doing the Rocky dance in public.  Naked and Singing.  They were honestly taken aback, and maybe even a little appalled.  What did it matter that I accomplished 5 things this week when there were easily 50 things still on my To Do List?  To which I replied, yes, but there were 55 things on my list and now there aren’t.  All I got back were blank stares and sadly shaking heads.  Chelle was being her usual out of touch with reality self.  It’s why she’ll make such a good writer.  She lives in her own little world, but they like her there.

    Okay, accepting that my friends love me and also encourage me, hence the good writer remark, I still don’t get why my TA Done! List is so crazy.  It’s not like I’m some sort of Polly Anna blithely skipping through life picking daisies.  I have TONS to do.  My current to do list has over 60 items on it.  No, seriously, 60.  And, they ALL have to be finished by the end of the month.  THIS month.

    But, if I never stopped and acknowledged what I had accomplished, I’d never get out of bed in the morning.  I think I see my TA Done! List as my own little gold star right in the middle of my forehead.  Remember gold stars?  Teachers used to hand them out when I was in grade school.  A little gold star at the top of my paper was a physical “You done good, kid.”  My teacher’s also gave out green stars and red stars.  They meant you did good, but they weren’t as good as a gold star.  Or, at least that’s how I remember it.

    Unfortunately, once you become an adult, nobody gives you gold stars anymore.  I personally think it’s important to reward ourselves for our jobs well done.  What’s wrong with rewarding yourself?  The sucky thing about being an adult is you end up parenting yourself.  No, really.  Think about it.  How often do you sit around and berate yourself for all the crap you didn’t get done, all the crap you need to remember to do, the calls you need to make, the groceries you need to pick up, etc. Etc, ad nasuem, until YOU are ad naseumed out.  So, if I have to give myself a stern talking to about all the crap I have to get done, well then damnit, I think I should also get to give myself a pat on the head and a cookie when I get said crap completed.  

    Because, let’s face it, if we don’t nurture ourselves, no one else is going to.  And that goes for whether a person is married or in a committed relationship or whether you’re mom is still alive or not.  When it comes right down to it, how do we have any choice but to be our own cheerleaders?  I say grab your pom-poms, print out that Ta-Done! List and do your own Rocky dance.
Because let’s face it, no one else will.  

    How can they?  They’re all too busy looking at their To Do Lists.