Sunday, December 6, 2009

Half-time

"In the game of life, there is nothing less important than the score at half-time."

I've not been able to find a source for this quote, but how wise it is. I no longer believe in coincidences and therefore, when this quote came into my awareness this past week, I greeted it like an old friend.

It's been a busy fall, with lots of travel and other interesting and wonderful interruptions to routine. This weekend, when I checked my fall to-do list, I found that I'm not quite as far along as I'd planned to be. I can think of times in my life when this would have upset me badly. This week, as an antidote to this realization, I balanced my to-do list with a "done" list: a celebration of what I have accomplished recently, whether or not it was on the original plan. This new list included some interesting detours from my planned route: an extra lunch with a dear friend, initiation of a new exercise strategy, discovery of a fascinating new website that makes statistics - including many health statistics - friendly (www.gapminder.com), etc.

I don't want to lose sight of my original objectives, and will therefore rework my to-do list tomorrow morning so as to ensure progress on them in the near future. But I'll look carefully at the timeframe I allow for that progress to take place: short enough to make a difference, but just long enough to allow for a few more detours. After all, it's only half-time...and I'm still in the game.

copyright 2009

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Well said - thank you for the reminder!

Unknown said...

Love this. Excellent approach to life. Thank you.