What's Important Now.

Notre Dame football coach /legend Lou Holtz used to give motivational talks around the theme set out in the title.
It's a catchy slogan: What's Important Now? (The W.I.N. Principle)
This to answer the question 'what should I be doing?', with a question.

As helpful as it may be at times, the question-answer is incomplete.
That's because it does not, nor could it always, provide a solution to the (increasingly frequent for me) conundrum of exactly what one/you/I should be doing at any particular moment.

Let me quickly acknowledge that this is a first world problem - by which I mean a problem afflicting the affluent and well off.
Let me say further, that recently I have been afflicted.

A certain lethargy has been noted.
Maybe it's an age thingy.
Maybe it's cuz a full break is overdue.
Maybe it's just poor personal management.

My recollection is that I have typically answered the question with responses that centered around
office work, or home/shelter tasks, or kids & family, or personal hygiene or sleep - with a dose of fun stuff mixed in.
And these still continue - but candidly, with fewer pressures or deadlines.

About 10 years back I reflected on similar themes, and I hit on an overarching approach.
That was that I should embark on a project, which would cover my retirement years, that emphasized being a good role model for the long now concept. That is encouraging a long term view to all life's questions.

Rosseau was to be my test ground.
Planning and hopefully building a thousand year structure was to be the model project.
This would be a project that had utility, and meaning, consistent with what I understood to be essential principles as articulated by the sages of the ages.

But I seem to have run out of gas.
And just as distressing, I am sensing diminished physical capacities.
The initial formulation of the project now seems out of reach on a bunch of dimensions.

Recently I have been reflecting on alternate paths.
Of course this is troubling, until one settles on a path.
As a matter of common sense, at some stage one has to stop planning, make a commitment, and start doing.
And whenever a possible change of path starts infecting one's thoughts, well, that's when the confusion emerges, and the circling begins.

Oh well...
I will not resolve this at this keyboard session.
It is good to simply note it crudely as I have done.
Fates willling I will return to give further comments in short order,
ideally with a path that I can embrace with greater resolve.

bon soir,
M