I decided, at some really dark point in my life last year, that I was going to focus more on my career this year and less on other things, personal life and people included. To this end, I decided to structure my year – pretty much like how a new government does – by writing down what I hope to achieve in the first 100 days and making visible steps to how they would work.
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And every day so far, I have stuck to that plan as closely as is possible. In a few weeks, I will lean back and take stock of how far I’ve come and how many things I’ve been able to do. Although, in all sincerity, I can tell you right now that while I haven’t done as much as I planned to, I have done quite a bit – and even other things that weren’t included in my list.
Things like helping people.
And once one hundred days are up, I take a break. I go off somewhere that I haven’t been to before, leave my phones and laptop behind, take only several books and change of clothing – and just getaway.
That’s how I recharge.
Many acquaintances and friends of mine think what I do is not exerting; after all, I just sit behind a computer and punch keypads all day and night.
Man, I wish it was that easy.
That’s actually the easiest part of my work – the keypad punching. The hardest part is the part where everything I punch out is a product of what I put in.
As humans, we receive billions and billions of megabytes of information daily. We’re exposed to them via the internet, the TV, the radio, friends, conversations, newspapers, and whatnot. We’re constantly being pitched at; someone’s always trying to sell us something. All that information is being processed in our minds whether we’re conscious of it or not. Because more often than not, we don’t have any use for the information, it stays on our temporary hard disk until it is replaced by more relevant or useful memories.
Creative people, however, (and by “creative” I mean people who do creativity for a living) know that information is coming in and they understand how to process and file it away for use another day and time. Things hardly ever pass by a consciously creative person. He understands that is where his livelihood resides. That is where he gets inspired from.
But sometimes the noise can get crazy chaotic. Things can get so bad that the only way to escape is to unplug and just get away from everything and everyone.
That’s why for an entrepreneur, keeping a relationship can sometimes be as hard as just staying alive, making it from one day to the next one. Explaining one’s self is not one of the many strengths of a creative person. Things can go south because of a little miscommunication.
Still, what can one do? No man is an island; that’s just the truth. We all need people around us; people who keep us balanced and focused and going. We need people to push us in the direction we need to be going. We need people to pull us back when we’re losing or have lost our way.
Like a friend of mine is fond of saying, God set us up, he created us to need people. I agree.
So, like any good entrepreneur knows, balance is necessary. To be truly complete, all areas of our lives must be in harmony. Every aspect of life should be paid attention to. Maybe one of these days I will share my day-starter routine with you.
Maybe someone will gain from it.
So I decided to speak to a lady I met on a fuel queue last week and had the most interesting conversation. I started the year thinking there wasn’t space for socialising, but maybe it’s time I did a 180.
After all, the goal is to live a little daily.
How do you create a balance in your life? Find out here.
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