I used to get bored. The absence of anything pressing or desirable. Of course, this was when I was a child, but I still remember the feeling. It wasn’t good. Almost an anxiety of sorts. Knowing to myself subconsciously or not that there was something better to be done with this time.
And now I don’t have this problem. Quite the opposite. My time is abundantly spent. Neverendingingly filled. So on… It is a blessed sort of problem to have, I suppose, but nevertheless I am remorseful that I cannot do all that I wish. I want to spend more time with family. I want to spend more time building my business. I want to spend more time with my community of friends. I want to spend more time with God. I want to spend more time volunteering. I want to spend more time exercising. I want to spend more time experiencing art. Walking. Sleeping(!). Experiencing nature. Scouting hole-in-the-wall restaurants. etc. etc.
And, obviously, I’m already at my limit. So what needs to happen is culling rather than adding. I don’t only want to do more of all these things, I want to do more of all these things well. And I can’t do all of these things at all; even fewer can I do if I wish to do them well.
So how should we as people manage an abundance of good things to do? At this point I do not wish to leave it at the whims of chance. But how does one decide what to say no to? If you are inundated by things to do, you know?
Well, let’s think of priorities. I’ve pretty much laid out my priorities based on decades, so let’s make this layout clear:
- 0→9: General growing.
- 10→19: Maturation and initial craft integration.
- 20→29: Craft maturation.*
- 30→39: Spouse integration, culture rearing pt. 1. //Note the shift of focus.
- 40→49: Child rearing. //Another shift.
- 50→59: Child rearing cont’d and start of culture rearing pt. 2.
- 60→??: Culture rearing pt. 2. //Focus shift again. For me, I hope this is through whatever businesses I own.
Now, note, these indicate the focus, not the only. These are what I believe the ideal of masculine focus, but may vary from person to person, and almost certainly is segmented by sex.
Given this, at 27, I am indeed still in the craft maturation phase. This is also, indeed, what I spend the vast majority of my time doing (about 45→60 of my best hours every week). Outside of that, I have my ancillary focuses: family, social, health and service. Rest is also present, but honestly this needs to be bumped up a bit. Not because it in itself is a pursuit that I find more richness in, but instead because it is a requirement to do my other pursuits at a higher standard.
I’m a sleepy guy. Right now I have allergies also, and this is no good. Snot drains down my throat. Yuck!
But now is the time to split and decimate a model for Oh man, a Train.. And I’ll do that, I suppose.
* Probably would be better to dissect years 0→25 into more specific focuses rather than the entire decade. As we age, the decade structure perhaps makes more sense, but during youth, each year seems to include a major shift.