How to Have a Personal Renaissance
29 Dec 2009
Lazy
Today I woke up at 11am, checked my email, dilly-dallied around the Internet for about an hour and then took a shower.
I sashayed my way to the mall, meandering through the crowds of productive people while thinking about food and other food.
After wandering around a bit, I spent a large sum of money on contact lenses, stopped at the store for some Red Bulls, alfajores and medialunas before proceeding back home to stuff myself full of simple sugars and caffeine.
Life is EASY.
Renaissance
There are times in most peoples’ lives when they feel motivated, ambitious, eager and anticipatory.
During these time periods great strides are made in many different aspects of one’s life as a mental renaissance takes place…the cold, hard, dark age of the mind is over and a new light – the light of innovation – shines down upon your mental landscape, warming your neurological serfs and deeply tilling the rippling soil of your brain’s intellectual wheat fields.
You become your own Michelangelo, your own inspiration, your own generous benefactor.
When you are feeling up, you’re really feeling UP, and as long as you can stay that way you will fly far beyond the rank-and-file.
The Plague
But unfortunately, most of us do not stay that way forever. In fact, the duration of a Personal Renaissance period can be mere days, if not hours or minutes.
These moments are so valuable and yet so fleeting! So much good is done in so little time!
Imagine if you could bottle these moments and use them when necessary. Who wouldn’t pay for that?
Eureka!
No matter how much money you have, you won’t be able to force a Personal Renaissance. You can, however, figure out what makes them occur more often for you (fo’ free).
For example, I’ve found that overcoming some sort of large obstacle, followed by working out, eating a healthy meal and making a list of things I want to get done tends to put me on the right track. I also know that overcoming a small, easily-completed task helps to mentally prepare me for a larger, more complex one, so I might start by washing the dishes, then spend a few hours knocking out a project for a client, then work out, then eat a delicious salad, then make a list of things I need and want to do (work and play), adding the items I already completed and crossing them out.
In going through these motions, I’ve set myself up to
- have plenty of physical energy to keep moving,
- bask in a feeling of victory after having completed at least one large and one small task for the day,
- know what else I need to do to keep that feeling going (each and every thing on the list is a new opportunity!), and
- establish momentum…crossing out the items I’ve already completed from the least makes it look less threatening. “Look! I’ve already completed a good portion of the list! Let’s finish that badboy off! Wooo!”
Having a Personal Renaissance does not have to be a rare event, and if you take the time to figure out what works for you, they should become even more common.
Just think what wonders could have emerged if the European Renaissance had lasted 600 years instead of 300. And imagine what I could have gotten done today if I had gone through my routine instead of gorging on snack foods.
