Here it is: Sunday

I had an opportunity to meet someone in New York City last Wednesday, which meant the drive in and out, plus the meeting, took about 14 hours that I hadn't planned when I wrote the last post; and, in it, committed to write two more posts before Tuesday.  This was a decision made neither by my lazy worker nor my plant manager. This was my internal customer relationship manager. Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself.

Song of Myself 

Walt Whitman

Do I contradict myself?

Very well then I contradict myself,

(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day’s work? who will soonest be through with his supper?

Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?

One of the hard things about being human is the ability to imagine the future without being able to predict it. 

Anticipation, Activation, and Reflection

Pick something important you want to make sure to accomplish next week. Write a blog post for example. Pick a time from 45 to 75 minutes when you can get a draft written or at least sketched out. Say Wednesday at 10 am. Where will you be coming from at 10am? What will be your mindset at the time. What will be competing for your attention at that time? How will you defend the space for that activity? What could possibly show up that would cause you to make a different choice for this time. 

In order to have a chance at following through with our intentions, the practice of metacognition is a powerful strategy to arrest the drift: that is, if I don't do this now, I can do it later. and so on, and so forth. 

For this post, I did this work of preparing the space for writing on Wednesday at 10am.

Now it's Monday at 9:33 am.

A client and an important conversation that I assessed was going to be best accomplished in person was arriving within driving distance on Wednesday. There was no expectation that I would be available. An opportunity was unexpectedly presenting itself. To take it meant breaking my commitment to my colleagues to complete this post before the last minute, and it would risk my commitment to you gentle reader to post on tactical metacognition each Tuesday. Taking the opportunity might gain nothing, but could benefit everyone. No way of knowing.

I went with Martin Luther.

Authentic forgiveness demands real transgressions rather than hypothetical flaws, for the divine does not redeem mere pretend offenders. Sin boldly, then, and make your errors grand,

Mea culpa.