Avocado Goals

The good thing about a blinking cursor is that eventually keystrokes overtake the repetition. Slow at first, they find their cadence and the blank page fills with letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs. An image unfolds.

Color forms, literally from black and white components.

Yesterday was an insanely busy day for a Saturday. Adam had to get up for work at 6AM, so I did the honorable thing and got up with him. I had previously offered to help one of the building owners with a dump run. I had a team of Comcast technicians en route for some heavy maintenance on our building’s tower. I had a good five hours of filing to accomplish. And I had two lingering writing deadlines.

I have a friend that I don’t see very often. We met at what I guess I can label ‘college’. It was sort of a college. She and I have a similar drive and, I suspect, are equally hard on ourselves. Although we don’t connect that much, I recognize her, perhaps from other lives.

She commented yesterday on my ‘2007 To Manifest List’ that it was “ambitious and specific”.

This initially resulted in me laughing out loud. I felt a little embarrassed too, like I was being foolish for setting such lofty goals.

At the film production company that I worked at in LA, I was in a constant downward spiral: always falling behind. It was an extremely ‘goal oriented’ environment.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully support setting goals.

The key, though, is to set attainable goals and to recognize that Armageddon isn’t on the horizon if a goal isn’t met.

We even had ‘daily track sheets’ that we had to turn in to prove that we were moving forward in every possible way.

“Really? I haven’t done this since grade school.”

The reason this system failed, in my opinion, is that for starters, we set entirely way too many goals. Secondly, we were treated like incompetent imbeciles if a goal wasn’t met. There was a constant presence of “I don’t fully trust you” in the air from the higher ups.

Everybody fell behind on every project. Everyone was miserable. Employees cried regularly.

But, most importantly, we didn’t need to be operating under such a harsh set of guidelines. We were a small but extremely smart and talented group of individuals. We were creative and overly proactive and hard working as it was.

Operating under the ‘teacher always looking over your shoulder’ mentality backfired. We began to resent our work and each other. And it’s a shame. Had we been allowed more freedom, I think that we would’ve organically prospered immensely.

So I take what I learned there and apply it to my current state. I recognize that I set a lot of goals. I do well with structure. But I’m also cognizant of letting the incomplete goals roll over into a more realistic time frame. It’s about flexibility. It’s about balance.

And it’s imperative to take time off, even when you’re behind. (Knowing & accepting that you’re always gonna be behind helps, too.)

Yesterday, after working for 11 hours, we enjoyed the Seahawks game. What a good game! We got in a short visit with some friends. We played music and soaked in a hot bath.

I’m failing to find the slick transition that takes us from goals to avocados, so I’ll bypass the segue and just dive right in.

I’m going through a weird food phase where I’m constantly craving eggs and avocados: rich buttery protein.

One of my favorite meals of the moment is layered in the following manner (from bottom to top):

Essential Bakery Olive Bread
(unbleached wheat flour, organic whole-wheat flour,
organic rye flour, water, sea salt, atalanti and kalamata
olives, fresh organic rosemary and dried thyme)

Fresh Goat Cheese
Organic Cheddar Cheese
Organic Avocado

Well, its noon. Coffee’s gone, breakfast is up and I need a shower.