It's valentines day!
That one day of the year when you spend time with that person you love.....
No?
Of course not, if there is a love in your life, you spend every day with that person (dog, cat, cuddly toy), or at least every day thinking about them, communicating with them or doing something for them.
Anything and everything that's important to you is worth attending to in some way, every day.
The older I get, the more I realise everything falls more and more neatly into two categories.
Things I will work on, think about, talk about, write about in some way, every day.
And those things I wont.
If I'm going to achieve anything, I will do some thing about it today and every day. If I put it off until next week, next month, next year, or when the time is right, I'm rapidly starting to discover that just means never.
It sounds extreme, but it really is everyday or never.
Marie Kondo taught us how to sort through our physical belongings, based on what sparks joy, and what doesn't.
This is a similar distinction, only to prioritise based on whether something is important enough to spend every day working on, or not.
This blog, for example, requires daily attention, if I can't give it that, I probably shouldn't waste any time on it.
That second language I want to learn. I'd love to get my Japanese or my French up to fluent conversational level, but I'm not going to do anything about it today, which, if I'm being honest, means it will never happen.
And if that thought bothers me, I can do something about it.
But the best thing to do is list all the projects, agendas, hobbies, areas of study, people, relationships that I feel are important enough to attend to every day, and see honestly, how much I can do in one day, and everyday, and that's probably going to be my life until I die.
Sobering thought, right? But a heavy dose of realism might help me actually achieve something.
This is just as much about avoiding wasting time on things you'll never achieve as it is about focusing on a few key ambitions.
The other reason I try and make my interests a daily matter, is that I like to have a daily routine. For those that find the need for routine but also want to achieve things, a distinction like this is very important.
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There are some exceptions that prove this rule.
I can think of quite a few people I want to stay in touch with that I can't make a part of my daily life.
Also, visits to the doctor shouldn't need to face this exclusion either.
Use your common sense, this is more about organising your ambitions and lifelong priorities.
Also, when you're younger you probably have so many interests, a lot of your pursuits will be weekly rather than daily, the move towards daily practice becomes more important as you get older.