Forward and Onward!
Back to Go-Mode
I was just writing my monthly newsletter and ruminating on how going back to school is never really about going back. It’s much more of a leap into a new set of relationships, partnerships, creative connections, and novel expressions of your own valuable perspective. But it’s also so full of expectation and expectations that it does sometimes feel like something is reeling you back in. Like Al Pacino starring as the Don Michael Corleone says in The Godfather, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
I don’t know about you, but I could use another month of summer. Or maybe it’s time. The part that I am excited to jump back into is the part where I am meeting new students and faculty, having conversations that I never could have predicted, and ideating with them and on my own to forge new strings of words to put into print and to say aloud in front of and in dialogue with new audiences and readers.
The part that I am not so excited to jump back into is the stressfulness of so many activities and so many competing demands, the time-management train-wreck that seems inevitable, and the always go-go-going of go-mode that feels impossible to put the brakes on. Any of this sound familiar?
Onward to Go-Deep-Mode
By sheer necessity of needing to surf the surging waves of commitments which each year seem to swell beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before, I am deciding to be extremely purposeful in choosing what to do and when to do it. I have several questions that I will ask myself:
What’s in it for me?
What’s in it for my family?
What’s in it for my community?
What’s in it for humanity?
There’s always going to be a hefty part of adulting that isn’t my choice whatsoever. So for the things I do have a choice over, knowing why I am committing my time to something and seeing where it needs to fall in the scheme of my priorities will help me to do just that: triage for the better.
If there is something that hits all those marks, serving not just me but all my networks and beyond, then it will be my priority. If it is unclear, then it may need to wait. The idea is to ensure that I’m putting my all into the things that deeply enrich my world and the people in it so I’m not just go-go-going in some superficial way but rather going deep into the heart of what matters.