What we repeatedly do

What we repeatedly do

I have seen so many peeps in my networks who quote some version of this . . . "As Will Durant writes in The Story of Philosophy (a quote often misattributed to Aristotle): “We are what we repeatedly do.""

This is arguably the most simple and the most complex statement ever. I am what I repeatedly do? And what do I repeatedly do? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. That is where the rubber meets the asphalt and friction occurs. So let me list what I repeatedly do, and perhaps you might find some similarities and likely conclusions.

I sleep the most of anything

I eat the most regularly of anything else, often, frequently, everyday

I read a great deal every day

I work very hard every day

I exercise a great deal every day

I travel a great deal every day

I smoke a cigar every day

I talk to my dad every day

I get a massage 5 times a week when in Europe or Asia

I watch a hockey game three times a week

And everything else declines from that . . . those are my most regularly repeatedly done tasks/actions.

So what are I?

We are what we repeatedly do?

So I am a sleepy, eating, reading, hard working, riding, traveling, smoking, well massaged hockey watching son?

No.

It is not only the actions we repeatedly do, it is the quality of the CONTENT and QUALITY of what we repeatedly do that makes us what we are - at least that is what I am thinking. 

The QUALITY of my sleep prepares me to accomplish all the other things I repeatedly do.

The CONTENT and QUALITY of what I eat fuels my accomplishments of what I repeatedly do.

The QUALITY of my exercise determines my energy.

Etc etc

You get the picture. You have to have the highest caliber of CONTENT and QUALITY in those things you repeat each day to get the results you expect and want. 

Aim high.

If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will

Greg McKeown's famous quote is ever more true. Someone is always waiting to prioritize your life. But then it is no longer YOUR life, is it? Someone is always prepared to give you more tasks, more responsibility, more options, more success, more agendas, more more more. And perhaps you can't wait for that challenge. But it is not YOUR life, because you did not choose those tasks, responsibilities, options, successes, agendas, etc etc. Someone else did. This is not what you want to accomplish.

Instead you want to pursue the right things for now. Which may not be what you should have pursued a decade ago, but what you should be doing right now, today, in this moment. But few of us have this experience. Instead we endow objects, opportunities, and possibilities with mystical powers, and THEY own our lives, our priorities.

The endowment effect - another McKeown quote - states that your emotional closet has more in it than you can purposefully utilize. This is true in our actual closets, and in the closets (spheres) of our lives. When you touch it, it being whatever is in that closet, to give it away, to get rid of it, whether it be a sweater or an opportunity, we seem to automatically overvalue whatever is in that closet. When this happens - and it will - at that point my closet owns me, it determines my priorities, I have lost control.

The only way to regain control is to regain control. Don't let these "things" be more important than they actually are in the real world. To get to MY measurables, MY objectives, MY deliverables, I have to have the clarity to understand what MY priorities are, and not allow my closets nor my peeps to prioritize my life. So sit down right now, list on a sheet of paper what are your underserved priorities actually are, and then list the priorities that others and the stuff in your closets are presenting to you. 

Find clarity. 

Prioritize your life. 

Or someone else surely will.