No More Dinner with Frasier Crane

TV photo from Canoe.ca

It’s oddly quiet in my apartment this afternoon; nothing to hear but the tapping of keys and the low hum of cars punctuated by the occasional truck hitting a pothole drifting through my open bedroom window. The quiet, relaxing as it may seem, is not voluntary. I arrived home last night after a long stint of classes to learn that my TV, despite the cable connection in the wall, was not receiving a single channel.

I do not mean to come off as whiny. The truth is, despite never having paid for cable since I moved into my apartment in September I received the gamut of TV entertainment, from ABC and NBC to Bravo and TLC.  Nevertheless, I am perturbed that after ten months of mind numbing boob tubing (…or however you would spell the verb version of tube) I am suddenly cut off, cold turkey, with only eight more weeks until I move out.

I know I know, we should all watch less television anyhow. But in my initial moments of panic I couldn’t help my own self-pity. “I deserve to watch TV! How will I entertain my fried brain at the end of the day?” and so I went rationalizing why I deserved to let my mind (among other things…) turn to mush from my comfortable sofa – not that I wouldn’t continue to criticize others for their lazy habits.

Somewhere within this flood of thoughts I began to recognize how hypocritical I was being. I was no different from someone else spending hours upon hours in front of the television. And, just how many hours was I spending in front of the television anyhow?

Well… 1 hour during lunch generally, that’s a minimum of 7 hours per week, plus two hours of comedy shows on Thursday nights that’s 9, plus I usually watched another show or two after that while doing homework so we’re up to 11, then I’d usually tune in to an hour or two right after class when I prepared and ate dinner, roughly 9 hours a week, so that’s around 20 hours, and then of course several hours of What Not to Wear and The Real Housewives on the weekend so we're up to about 26 hours and… Wow. That’s an entire day. That’s MORE than an entire day. And I wasn’t even finished! That’s… embarrassing.

Now I have to defend myself a little bit here. I do have an apartment to myself so I usually listen to the TV while I am doing general tasks like cooking or cleaning. Also, since my wonderful boyfriend lives about a light-year away on the East Coast I probably have more TV-available time than your average attached gal or single lady on the prowl. Even so, I will not try to deny that there has got to be a better way to spend that time.

Photo found here

And so it begins. It’s not that I have not been perfectly happy without television access in the past – a semester in Greece and a summer in Colorado Springs were both TV free and incredible times in my life. I spent more hours outside, more hours reading, and more hours exploring during those periods than ever before. Perhaps losing my cable, as much of a shock as it was, is just what I need right now. 

Mission Statements

Having spent many years studying business, the importance of a strong mission statement is not to be underestimated when it comes to a company’s (or any organization’s) success (for-profit or otherwise). But it turns out that mission statements are a powerful tool for us as individuals as well. A personal mission statement is a great way to focus your reason for getting up each day into a single, succinct blurb.

So what’s the purpose of a mission statement? It can be your mantra when you need an extra boost to pursue your goals and a reminder of what’s most important in your life. It can also serve as a compass for decision making – helping you to evaluate options in terms of whether or not they will support your self-defined ultimate purpose on this earth. Perhaps most importantly of all, the process of crafting your mission statement can be an empowering experience; opening up your imagination and your heart to possibilities you may have dismissed as naïve or improbable in the past.

So what makes a good mission statement? Any business student will tell you it’s a short (ideally a sentence in length)  articulation of your reason for operation that is specific enough to be measured but broad enough to ensure you have a purpose for many years to come. If you need a little inspiration, Google your favorite businesses and check out their mission or vision statements. In fact, a particularly good example is Google itself. You can find this text on Google’s Corporate website.

“Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Notice that Google hasn't pigeon-holed itself, the organization is able to keep this mission even as technology changes. Once you have some solid examples to get your wheels spinning, block out a little time for yourself to do some soul searching. If you’re having trouble narrowing down what your purpose is for your mission statements, here are a few questions to get you started:

•    What topics get you excited, agitated, bring out the rawist emotions in you, or maybe even get you angry when they arise in conversation?  What is it you’re so passionate about that gives rise to these emotions?
  
•    What activities do you look forward to the most? Which of these activities  give you a sense of purpose and fulfillment?
•    When was the last time you woke up and bounded out of bed, ready to take on the day? What did you do that day that gave rise to this feeling?

For some of us, crafting a personal mission statement that sticks may be a simple task, while for others it may take some serious reflection. Maybe you are already living your mission statement each and every day, and that’s wonderful! Or maybe your true purpose is to create a more peaceful planet as an animal activist and you work in a puppy mill – that’s ok too!  You’ve now taken the first step to reaigning your actions with your life purpose.

My own mission statement is a work in progress, but the groundwork is in place. Here’s what I have so far: To help others discover health, happiness, compassion for all beings, and a curiosity about the world around them. While I still have some fine tuning to do, I think this statement really sums up what I feel my purpose is.  

Tune in next time for some more tips for creating YOUR mission statement and making it a reality!

In Limbo

You know that feeling when you’re ready to take on a new challenge but you can’t do it just yet? Feeling like you’re stuck in a life that no longer resembles what you want, but unable to do what it is you’d truly like? How about when you fall asleep each night counting down the days until you’ll finally have the chance to jump into a new project, move into a different place, or take a similar step towards making your dreams a reality?

Welcome to limbo. We say we’re “in limbo” when we’re stuck between a set of circumstances that no longer supports what we want and one which is not yet attainable. While we’re not exactly in the mythical portion of hell whence the term came, for anyone “in limbo” it can feel just as torturous. 

People use the term to describe the way they feel in many different situations, but it’s likely that, in one form or another, we have all been there. Impatiently struggling through day-to-day drudgery when all you can think about is how things will be when the house is sold/ the stars align/you save enough money to start that business/you earn your degree/etc.

While sometimes being “in limbo” can be a great opportunity for reflection and planning, it can also do some major damage to our motivation and wellbeing.

For the past few months I’ve been in limbo. I have been working on undergraduate and graduate degrees in business for the past four years and will enter the workforce in August. I no longer feel like a student, but I’m far from feeling like a true adult either. While I have extensive lists of the projects, feats, and experiences I plan to tackle when I have time and funds and no more homework to think about, I’ve come to a realization. 

No one ever has enough time. No one ever has enough resources. We are all in limbo if we allow ourselves to wait for the timing to be just right to start on that list of desires.

So what are we to do? Well one option is to dwell on our imperfect set of circumstances to the point of paralysis and never begin to pursue the life we want. This choice might look something like staying in a miserable job because you never feel financially secure or prepared enough to start your own venture, or staying in an unsatisfying relationship because you’re waiting for something better to come along first. 

The second option is to fully embrace the resources and abilities we currently have, as imperfect as they may seem, and take action. 

For some time I’ve chosen the first path – thinking I couldn’t possibly pursue my goals of starting my own blog, writing for pleasure, learning to sew, experimenting with design and style, or starting my own business because I simply didn’t have the time, the money, the resources, or the self-confidence. Well the truth is, I never will. So instead, I’m ready to dive in with what I do have.

This blog chronicles my findings and musings as I attempt to rediscover my passions and start becoming the person I always dreamed I’d be.  I’m not waiting for the time to be right any longer.

Welcome to apartment 303.