Close your eyes and think of what you did yesterday. Even if it consisted of sitting on the couch and sipping soda, you were probably processing a few dozen mental races. Maybe you were not sure what channel to pick. Maybe you were contemplating changing the channel. Maybe you were simultaneously trying to figure out the answer to a crossword puzzle question. The point is that we are constantly solving problems in our head, even when we are desperately trying to fall asleep at night. Most of these mental races are small sprints of a huge race. For example, a massive project is due at work and you are thinking of how you are going to finish it all by the deadline. We often get intimidated by the whole thing. What we forget to do is break it into tiny pieces and think of each as a separate project.
This is often a technique used in sports. A college basketball team starts the season and sees the thirty some games ahead and starts to freak out. The coach will sit the team down and tell them to think of each game as the only one in the season. Everything is on the line. However, focus on each half as its own game. If you are winning at the end of each half, the game is won. If you win each game in the season, the championship is won. You have to focus on one at a time. I know, you are thinking, "What an obvious piece of advice!" You are right. However, it is often the most obvious advice that we let slip by and forget to follow.
If you take the metaphor described above, you can apply it to so many aspects of life. Term papers, dinner parties, your job, mowing the lawn, starting a business, saving for a vacation, etc. The list is endless. The key part is never giving up. You have to always push to get to the next part of your journey. There are so many obstacles that are waiting to push you off track. One of the best ways to make sure your perseverance is not derailed is to organize. That may entail documenting each step in the process, setting reminders, delegating and keeping track of progress, etc. The cipher to it all is organization. Period.
Think of the basketball example I gave above. How could the team win if they did not formally lay out the plan for each play? They need to study the opponent, strategically position their use of time outs, and act upon a multitude of other steps that get them a win. You have to do the same thing. The reason why people get lost in the cloud of a monster task is that they enter blindly. Organization is the cure. Sometimes there are aspects of the plan that we cannot predict. You can account for those too. Just make sure you have the unknowns as part of the plan. Step two of Making Life Fair involved listening. If you are listening while you are following your plan, you will find that the unknowns often pop up early enough in the process to tackle. That is, if you have a plan. Is life just a big race with some 30,000 mini races, with one to run every day? Possibly. Make life fair. Win each race.
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