Under Promise, Over Deliver
I am up early today, particular so since it is Spring Forward. I can on occassion fall back asleep. Yet, I tend to be once up, then up. I have to be very weary to be able to get back on that bus of nod. Because I absolutely love coffee, I can hardly wait to drink it every morning. That is usually the motivation to leave the mattress. I am not a lingerer in the morning. I like to move.
I can head back to the bed to read or watch TV later and perhaps be visited by the Nap Fairy, I just can't count on it. She comes as she wishes. The caffeine has to wear off to a degree before her magic dust is effective.
Speaking of completion, let me zero in on coffee: I bought a cleverly designed single-serving French Press for travel that I have been brewing coffee out of all week. I decided after hanging out at the Adirondack Loj this summer and drinking their shitty coffee and having serious urinary issues (had to take a leak every half hour on the way home from upstate New York) that I would bring my own coffee beans and equipment when feasible on trips.
BTW, I am drinking some remarkable Yemeni coffee right now. It is unlike any other coffee. The harsh condition of growing in such an arid region makes these beans different. The harshness breeds depth. Ponder that!
My normal weekday coffee strategy is to brew ahead in my industrial-sized French Press and then microwave it first thing. From Mason Jar, to Mug, to Mouth in about two minutes. My mornings are very much hitting certain time markers in order to get out the door by 6:45 AM.
I was very skeptical that I could stay on-track time-wise if I ground my beans, microwaved my water, and brewed the coffee in the single-serving French Press, every day. I found out that I can do it, I just have to move quicker. Which is something that coffee helps me with, so I am in a bit of a paradox here.
The time and tasks of routines are pretty easy to understand. An egg takes so long to fry, I need to shower for a certain amount of time, work-outs are 25 minutes, it takes this long for me to gulp down the E-8 and pack lunch. Scripts are easy to follow the more we are attentive and acclimated to them.
Where the challenge can be is when we are embarking on something new, particular something new and hard to do that is over a long period of time. Earning a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and writing a book, took quite a bit longer than I had imagined and planned. Several friends thinking about doctoral studies have asked me for advice.
It is this: It will be harder than you ever imagine.
I can't tell them necessarily all the details about how it will be harder than they think down to the granular level, but I can sketch out some parameters and give insight based on that. When I was in doctoral studies and writing a book, as I had never done either before, I didn't have experience to rely upon to assess how long it would take, how hard it would be, and when it would end. Or whether I'd be successful in either endeavor. If it would end became the question rather then when.
I was dependent, particularly in the Ph.D. studies, on my Adviser, who both helped and hampered my progress. Ph.D. studies are very open-ended on the Dissertation side of things. I found the harder that I pushed to get around the corner, the more and further away the corner became.
One night on the phone I finally told my Adviser that he'd have to accept what I had done or I was quitting the program. We were debating the parameters of my research (not even the research itself). He backed down and we moved forward. It was a gamble. But, many hard times were still ahead.
It was maddening. And frustrating. And heart-breaking And mind-raping. And soul-crushing. I was too far in too quit, but not within crawling distance of the distant shore. I just suffered. I learned a valuable lesson in all of that experience. Before making any pronouncements about when an endeavor will be completed, remember that things are always harder than I think.
People may accuse you of lying if you are to rosy in your predictions...and it may not be a lie and usually isn't. It probably just was rash. Assuming that you are all in with the task, remember that effort alone is not King. Effort is a necessary but not sufficient component of success.
My getting lost in the doctoral program was not due to procrastination or a lack of energy or dishonesty. It was encountering unexpected challenges that I had not anticipated. My Adviser had given me a timeline that was not correct and I didn't know better to doubt it. Presuming upon tomorrow is always tricky business. We expect that we will have the time available to get a task done. Procrastination is a future projection based on assumptions that are not realistic. I don't procrastinate typically. However, I have casually entered circumstances that proved to be difficult to extricate myself from once entered.
So, how do we handle this?
- Learn to think ahead and get tasks done sooner rather than later. Rushing is usually reckless. Leave ten minutes early. Sometimes doing a piece of something sets the stage for a more rapid completion of a task. Not everything has to be done today BUT something needs to be done today. Good preparation leads to proper execution.
- Prioritize what is most important. A rule of self-management is to spend 80% of your time on the top 20% of your priorities. Learn to say no unapologetically. I am practically pathologically good at saying "No." I really don't over-value peoples' opinions of me. I want to have a good reputation and all that...I just don't want to be a slave to the crowd because it is far too capricious. And frankly, unthankful.
- If I am working on something that does involve others' expectations being fulfilled, I attempt to get back to people quickly and articulate my uncertainty about timelines if I have them rather than hide them. Once people understand that I may be unsure about completion dates, that communication bridges the chasm of unknowing where others make assumptions about what we are doing or not doing. A word in a timely fashion is much better than a retrospective explanation.
- Seek others perspectives and work it into your grid. Realize that the circumstances are rarely identical yet there are some common themes. Listen for those, ask how the person handled it. Also inquire what he/she would do over in a different manner.
Jesus told his listeners to "Count the costs." The difficulty has always been for me to know the costs ahead of time. Isn't Jesus commanding us to be God-like, to know the future? Like most of Jesus's teachings, there is a lot of unknowns left unexplained. We have to figure it out using the limited understanding that we have and the wisdom we have been granted.
This saying is about discipleship. Jesus tell us being His followers is not easy. The worldly power hates us...always has and always will...until the Kingdom comes. He doesn't tell us always how it is going to be hard, just that it will be. And that He is with us for us.
Comments