What Day Are We Up To?

The Blog Challenge started out well but somehow, lately, deadlines are rushing past me faster than the Bullet Train leaving Shanghai Station. The question ‘What day are we up to?’ seems to be creeping into my thoughts more often than I care to acknowledge. The new year has just begun, so why is it in such a hurry to be over?

Where Did That Year Go?

Given the prospect of another year slipping by, I figured it might be time to make some definite plans; set some goals; find some direction. I’m guessing it’s what most people call ‘New Year’s Resolutions’, except, I don’t do them. I used to – sort of, but the goals would usually end up as fleeting thoughts that passed through my mind on their way to the dark place that thoughts disappear to. I don’t know where that place is because I’ve never successfully retrieved anything significant from there. All those goal-oriented thoughts hung around just long enough to leave a faint, whimsical memory before slipping silently into the void. All that was left was an occasional “Oh yeah, I kind of remember thinking I would do that – that was how long ago? Surely not!”.

This year I’m going to try a radical new approach and actually write the ideas down. There’s no guarantee that this will work any better than not writing them, but it’s worth a try.

The problem with writing the ideas down is a lot like writing a shopping list.

The Shopping List

The finer points of the shopping list include the following:

• take stock of the pantry
• scan the refrigerator for essential items, or lack thereof
• transcribe the absent items onto a very long piece of paper, herein referred to as ‘the list’
• drive to the store
• spend five minutes circling the car park looking for an empty space not too far from the door
• spend another five minutes test-driving trolleys (shopping carts) to find one with all four wheels in alignment
• wheel the trolley to the top of the first aisle ready to start shopping
• put your hand into your pocket to retrieve the list
• open your wallet in the hope that the list is in there
• search every conceivable place that an elusive list could have found its way into
• suddenly picture the list sitting on the kitchen table, right where you wrote the very last item
• debate whether to drive all the way home to get the list
• decide to ‘wing it’ and shop without the list; how hard could that be – you only wrote the list an hour or so ago
• wonder why you have a lot more items at the checkout than you remember writing on the list
• drive home
• wonder why you have an abundance of items that weren’t on the list and none of the urgent items that you are completely out of
• vow to never waste time writing a list again

The shopping list method doesn’t work!

Which brings me right back to the radical idea of writing down the earth shattering ideas that are going to magically transform 2018 into the most productive year of my life. Since the list idea clearly isn’t an option, what next?

How or where will I write my ideas that will ensure they won’t disappear into that elusive place for homeless thoughts?

No Idea!

I haven’t quite figured that part out yet but I’m working on it.

One of the bright flashes of inspiration that lit up my otherwise dormant mind earlier today, was to incorporate the ideas into my blog. Since my website is relatively safe and secure, there isn’t too much risk of the great literary masterpieces slipping over the edge of reality into cyberspace, never to be seen again. And since the Blog Challenge is all about getting me into the habit of writing daily more frequently, the blog-full of goals should jump out and remind me to actually do something about them – hopefully.

So now that I have the ‘where to write them’ sorted out, I just have to work on the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ to write. And that is best left for another day.

Watch This Space!