“From now until the day you die, your job isn’t to set goals, but to create a lifestyle you would still follow even if you were to live forever… A lifestyle of maintenance is a collection of habits you want to wake up to and never want to complete.”
I couldn’t tell you how I found this video. But its advice pops into my brain every once in a while.
If you have a completion mindset, you are constantly trying to clear your plate. Check the box. Empty the queue. And yet when you hit a goal, you get only the briefest moment of satisfaction before your brain goes “well, what next?” Or worse, the list fills right back up and you feel like your efforts are futile.
What if we cultivated maintenance, not completion? What if life was in the doing of the things, not something you enjoy after the things are done?
What if you went to the gym, not to achieve perfect fitness, but to continue to enjoy health as you age?
What if you reached out to five people a week, not to check off that marketing task, but to tend the web of your network?
What if you practiced your craft, not because you will one day paint your magnum opus, but because you embrace the joy of it and the gradual improvement?
What if we were okay with doing things pretty well, but consistently, instead of perfectly, but scattershot and painful?
I’m not big on new year’s resolutions. But I do want to be better about seeing my life, and what’s in it, as something I’m cultivating and nurturing.
Maybe that sounds good to you, too.
I’ll be taking the next two weeks off to enjoy some rest and quality time with friends and family. Whatever this time of year looks like for you, I hope you can do the same.