Let your body do the thinking

I was just looking at my To Do list and thought that it is not getting shorter but longer every day. It can be overwhelming knowing that every day you have more and more to do. Calling/visiting family, emailing friends, posting pictures, furnishing the apartment, keeping up with the news in Canada and Croatia are just a few of the things on my list. Not to mention: get a bank account, deal with a bank in Ottawa for an overpayment of mortgage, deal with a lawyer in Ottawa, get health insurance, request visa for Carla, etc. etc. On top of that I would like to think that daily things like eat well, sleep enough hours a day, workout, enjoy life, love my wife, and keep the place clean would have a prominent place on this list.

Being a recovering perfectionist (still trying to kick the habit), I have decided to stop using a To Do list. From now on, I will have a Daily List (things that I want to do every day/week) and a Whenever List.

My Daily List will be short but sweet: sleep well, eat well, love your wife (and show her that you love her), work out (not quite every day), enjoy every day (very important!), and be happy (happiness needs not be delayed to some time in the future). There, a very simple but a very powerful list. I know that if I only do the things on my Daily List, I will feel good.

On those days when I have extra time and energy, I will tackle my Whenever list. My Whenever list will have tasks listed in order of priority, but that order is just a suggestion, not a must. The whole point is to do the things that you have energy and interest in. Sure, at the beginning you may not feel like doing the right things, but that is ok. After a while, your body knows what needs to be done and when. I have stopped using shoulds and coulds when it comes to things that I need to do. I will either do something now or I won't. I will not do it because I should or because someone else thinks that I should. I will also not be pressured by guilt into doing something. The body knows what it does and does not need to do now.

I have been using my head to decide what I should do in life, but now I am trying to use my body (feeling, gut, intuition, or however else you want to call it) to guide me in what I need to do. Our body is constantly giving us clues on what is good or bad for us. We are tired when we need rest, we are sad when we need support and encouragement, we are hungry when we need nourishment, and we feel pain when something is wrong with our body or our soul. It is not pain that we need to stop, it is whatever is causing the pain that needs to be fixed. Sure, take a Tylenol to stop the pain, but then try and figure out what is causing the pain, or the pain will come again.

When I started my MBA, I was in the mode of using only my head to make decisions, but I quickly realized that the world is not black and white and using your head only will not get you the best results in life. I am getting better at using my intuition/body to make decisions that are good for me. It is still work in progress, but I am happy that I've started on this path. I still use my mind to come up with options, but the body has the final say. :-)

As far as my Whenever List, I'll get to it when my body can handle it. Let me know your thoughts on this topic. I would love to hear your views!