Type A or can we all relax a little?

[learningtogrow]

I've had a struggle the last several months of my PD journey with being type A or just going with the flow.

In the beginning, I sat down, wrote out all my goals. Had 5 year, yearly, monthly, weekly, daily etc... goals. I spent a lot of time planning. I was productive, but honestly, life was pretty rigid. My husband is very much not type A and he did his best to conform to the lifestyle writing out goals as well but it was just not natural for him.

I think we finally just got burnt out on it. It's not enjoyable for us to be so scheduled. We ended up going way in the other direction. I stopped tracking everything (finances) which helped to stop obsessing over it. We didn't have a daily schedule. Let things go by the wayside. I started believing in myself more. That I could accomplish things without lists and schedules and started trusting the universe.

Once I went way on that side, I realized that by nature, I like to be organized to a degree. I'm trying to find the balance between being overly rigid, and overly lackadaisical and it's been an ongoing process but I'm kind of at the tipping point. Getting reorganized has taken some time, but I don't want to go overboard again and that's where I am I think.

I see over and over in posts and blogs that you need to have a goal, plan plan and plan some more. Does anyone in this community just relax and trust and go with the flow. Isn't it possible to have a vision and just go with it? It seems that the rigidity is the first step, but are there others out there that have loosened up a little bit since then and seen positive results?

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by learningtogrow

Does anyone in this community just relax and trust and go with the flow. Isn't it possible to have a vision and just go with it? It seems that the rigidity is the first step, but are there others out there that have loosened up a little bit since then and seen positive results?

I believe that everything lies in the attitude that is adopted...

Most successful people that I have studied see life as some sort of a game... where you lose some and you win some... but the most important aspect of that game is to keep it fun and interesting...

"Played" that way, life has its share of stress... but it is the enjoyable stress that one feels when playing in a high intensity sport... that good stress is way more interesting, rewarding and motivating than sitting down and watching the parade go by...

.

[Ree]

I believe that however organized I am, I still should be kind to myself. In other words, it's not a big deal if I don't do everything on my weekly list and a few things have to be carried forward to the next week. I don't beat myself up about it. The important thing is to get them done and not let them slip through the crack.

Pick and choose what needs to be done on a routine basis and stick to that routine. Give yourself some leeway, but still hold yourself accountable in the long run. For example, decide that you will balance your checkbook every Friday. Then, on a particular Friday, if an appointment runs longer than you expected and you get home to find the washing machine has overflowed, and after dealing with that, it's time to go next door for you neighbor's birthday party and after that you're too tired and the next day you're going out of town for the remainder of the weekend, give yourself a BREAK. Balance the checkbook on Monday

For me, having lifetime goals without yearly goals and those weekly to-do lists is like having a destination without a map for the journey. But it's only a guide. You can get off schedule now and then, take some side trips for the heck of it.