Walking Talking To-Do Lists

Just do it and stop talking about it.

When I announce in advance that I’m going to do something, it almost feels like I’ve already done it, so I’m not as compelled to complete the pursuit as I might have been had I kept quiet and just done it.

It’s like seeing a preview to a movie when Steve and I look at each other and one or the other says, guess we’ve just seen that movie – saved some money there – as we move on to another preview.

So I recently adopted a new way. Instead of being a walking talking to-do list, I do it first, then announce its completion or not. It seems that announcing I’m going to do something sparks me up a little; it’s new. Having completed something doesn’t carry the same spark. Who cares what I did or didn’t do? It’s the anticipation of doing something that excites, but again, once spoken, the excitement of anticipation turns to dread of having to do something just because I announced it.

Is that what some people call holding your cards close to your chest?  Something like that, but not in a hiding sort of way, more in a ‘this is between me and myself’ kind of way. Maybe the ‘all talk and no action’ explains the dilemma in speaking so much about what you’ll do, that puffs you up, but then deflates you as you go about doing it.

Completing a task before you announce it works best in little ways to increase your confidence level while doing the task. If you put it out there, something in the universe always tries to muck it up, even if with a gesture or a raising of the eyebrow. It’s human nature to block the endeavors of others, no matter how small.

Putting everything out there is a throw back to childhood when Mom or Dad wanted to know where you were, where you were going, with whom, what time were you coming home, what were you going to do, that we over time automatically wove it into our disposable DNA.

Girls especially, since they’re the most vulnerable – or used to be – developed habits of accountability that boys later turned to men weren’t required by gender to do. That’s why the discrepancy between genders in areas of who has a right to know what you’re up to. As a result of that early training girls more than boys become walking talking to-do lists.

Boys grow up with a different disposable DNA – one of unaccountability. They could take care of themselves, so Mom and Dad didn’t train them as if they couldn’t. I call it disposal DNA because it can change, but only you can do it. Sure your mother and father set you up, one way or the other, for protective purposes, but they’re not around.

Now it’s up to you to take the training wheels off and move confidently into a new age designed by you.

There’s power in holding still your plans and motives till you implement them. Use it. It’s yours. It’s nobody else’s business.