Again, just for the sake of keeping it all together, am pasting in my original submission posted to Mark's blog, setting up my TYSIC . I was certainly reluctant to set myself targets to begin with - because I felt so sure it would just become a hostage to fortune - didn't want to fall short and feed a sense of inadequacy and failure.
But by the end of week one I felt I could take that original discursive posting and break it down into clearer bullet points in order to address them more directly. My remaining concern is trying to make progress on too many fronts at once! And I'm still a bit worried about setting myself up to fail..... (where's that Watson-esque optimism, eh?)
The resonance of the song lyric quoted below remains significant to me - planning an agenda of self-improvement is all very well, but real life will always throw curved balls our way.
Ten Year Self-Improvement Challenge - 1st March 2010
Have been pondering for a long time whether to join in or not. Feel a bit on the old side, for a start (am currently 47), and my first reaction to the challenge was a bit bleak – along the lines ‘just hope I’m still around/ still want to be around’: gave me pause for thought though!
I have HOPES for 10 years from now, but they’re not really within my control – so not suitable for this challenge – eg would love it if my sons (currently 17 & 19) were happily settled with loving partners by 2020 (a grandchild in or around 2020 would also be lovely but don’t want to get carried away!)
My favourite line from John Lennon’s song ‘Beautiful Boy’ (written for his then baby son Sean) has a sad tinge given his untimely death, but it is ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’ (not sure if this line originated with JL or if he got it from an earlier source)
This line reminds me not to get too hung up on my own agenda. Instead I’m keen to stay flexible, to remain open to opportunities as they arise – to be willing to try new things, take risks etc.For example, I changed my career last January (hadn’t expected that to happen!) – love what I do now.
So, although I don’t want to have a list of things to try to tick off by 2020, I do want to be a bit more proactive AND to take a positive approach to whatever crops up unexpectedly.
Like another earlier poster, I am growing aware of the limited time left to enjoy time with my lovely parents (currently approaching 80) – so I’ll definitely add that to my own personal challenge.
And one other tiny little concrete challenge – to start gong to live entertainment again: theatre, stand-up comedy etc. (to quantify this with an achievable target, let’s make it ‘once a month’) That one will be easier to monitor.
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Don't worry about age, I'm new to blogging too, (44 years old). As for your concrete challenge of making the effort to see live entertainment, that's a very good idea, it is such an uplifting past-time - I've been doing that for a couple of years now and I'm sure having so many good things to look forward to helped me to stay sane in my increasingly unstable workplace.
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(Feeter - Dressed in Black, Watsonian - DIB).