LISTMAKER and BLAHDEEBLAH
He has leatherbound notebooks filled with years and years of lists.
Lists for summer goals, lists for home repairs, lists for vacations. Even though he's retired,
I could visit my dad's desk tomorrow and probably find his Personal, Spiritual, and Financial goals stretched out over crisp pages in fine point ink or number 5 pencil.
My sister has inherited the gottamakealist gene.
She doesn't put her lists in books. She writes them on cute little pieces of stationary and sticks them to her fridge. She actually adds stuff to her list just so she can cross it off. Zealot.
I've tried to be a Listmaker. I make lists, and then promptly spill coffee on them. It's pitiful.
When I was a young wife, I made a list of weekly chores. I made this cute little colorful chart and showed it off to my friend Shelley. I told her how it might keep me motivated to get things done.
She looked it over and then looked right at me and said,
"By the time you finish coloring,
I could have half that sh*t done."
Shelley inherited the cussing gene. And the stopmakingexcuses gene.
My friend Sherri the accountant has spent 5 years in Tennessee and now is moving to Arizona. We were having a lively discussion about how she wishes she would have had a list when she moved to Tennessee.
Maybe it would have read something like this:
- Be a friend to this person.
- Give this to that person.
- Do this.
- Go here.
- Good job. Now you're done. Move to Arizona.
Sherri wishes she had her Arizona list right now, before she moves there.
She says there would be peace in knowing that she was doing the things on the list every day, and she would be certain she was completely in God's will and pleasing him by doing things on the list, and blahdeeblah. She says the word blahdeeblah all the time.
Sherri inherited the imtoolazytofinishasentence gene.
I was thinking about how I would feel about having a list every day. In some ways it would be good.
I would be able to measure my success.
I would know I'm on track.
There would be no ambiguity.
I could add stuff and mark stuff off and be proud of being a Listgirl.
Hm. Wait. Yeah, I don't think I would like that.
Here's what I think. I think there is a steadfast list of things God wants me to live by, and then he sets me free to mess stuff up and dream up wild and weird things and make myself and the people around me
And when I'm done He leans over and says
I guess if lists make you squidgy (this is a good thing), you should go for it and make lists.
But I'm not going to feel bad for not being a Listgirl any more.
I'm just going to love God and love others.
I'm going to keep looking for ways to get squidgy.
I'm going to keep telling stories.
I'm going to mess things up and dream big and blahdeeblah.
What about you? Are you a listmaker?
What about you? Are you a listmaker?
Lists? Not so much. I would almost venture to say I sort of dislike them, a lot. I call myself 'sidetrack charlie' (not sure where that came from, but my family knows what it means) because I set out to do a thing and then get sidetracked because I see something shiny or interesting. I have tried the list and it has only worked when grocery shopping, the thing I rarely ever do. I also find that when I make a list, the things on the list seem to want to be prioritized which I could care less about since I usually do what is on the list intermitently throughout a week anyway. I can see what needs to be done. I can know what must be accomplished. What I mostly have a hard time with is remembering places to go and things to do. I don't make a list for this, I just write it down on my calendar and repeat it to myself three times like Dorothy when she is clicking her heels together. Sometimes it actually works for me! (Except when the plan changes, then all bets are off!) I believe I am a creature of habit and that I am horribly unmotivated to do much of anything that requires effort toward an uninteresting process or goal. I don't grocery shop because it is boring to me--that is most of the truth, the rest of it is that my husband is out way more than me and is a much better shopper, but mostly, it is just boring.
ReplyDeleteI like the love God and love others plan. I am also a horrible initiator, a sad excuse for 'glue' in a relationship, and my follow through has much to be desired. No wonder I have kids and no job. A person can quit being an office clerk but you can't really quit being a mom...a state of being rather than doing...Anyway, I am going to make a list of things to do before the inlaws come for my KIDS to do, maybe the list will work for them??? :)
I am definitely a listmaker. However, once I make the list I tend to loose it or have multiple lists going on at once. Keep on doing what makes you squidgy and I know great things will happen! :)
ReplyDeleteReading this blog was on my to do list today. But being nice to tap tap's and not hitting any goats in the road was not, so I didn't do it.
ReplyDeleteOK, this one made me LOL! Especially the blahdeeblah part. Now I'm going to be making a list counting off how many times I say that! Although I do appreciate the new perspective of the "imtoolazytofinishasentence" theory, I'll have to investigate that one too. Thanks, friend, for making me laugh today! :-)
ReplyDeleteahhhhhh.... I just snorted coffee through my nose and made my husband listen as I read! ahhhhhh you are a girl after my own heart... and so is Sherri!!! Love you sister!!! LOVE YOU!!!
ReplyDeleteI would be sooooo lost with out my lists!!! I have one in my purse, my desk, my bathroom, and my nightstand..... :) Crossing stuff off my lists is therapeutic for this friend of yours! :)
ReplyDelete