If overwhelmed, do you know your “XYZ”?

The number of incomplete projects I have feels like it’s gotten out of hand and has entered the “overwhelmed” stage.

So many articles, videos, messages, and projects that have been started, but not finished, despite the hours invested into many of them.

When tomorrow rolls around, it gets shelved — and the amount of “inertia” I have to overcome to finish it is just “too much” or another idea takes priority.

Even just in writing this, I’ve thought of and drafted 3 other articles I want to work on.

And so lately I have struggled with wading through everything I want to finish — all the articles, video ideas, and people I want to respond to.

Some are legitimately important and the 80% that remains probably isn’t worth keeping.

So — two thoughts:

(1) Not everything needs hours invested into it for it to be valuable.

Maybe we personally get immense value of just expressing who we are, what we’re thinking, or what we’re up to.

Maybe one reader will have something ‘click’ for them that could positively shift their day as a result of hearing your experience or perspective.

Sometimes I just need to BLEH (express) onto the page, hit publish, and be done with it – and move onto the next thing.

Often messy-yet-genuine expression or progress is better than spinning in circles doing nothing.

This one messy post, or that one fun photo share, or cleaning that one desk might be THE catalyst for a landslide of other progress now that the “block” has been removed.

(2) Compelling “North Stars” help filter out all the important (and not) tasks, obligations, articles, etc.

When I know my “top priorities” are X, Y, and Z — it becomes clearer to me that 80% of the tabs/tasks on my list aren’t actually relevant in anyway.

Worse, they’re distractions pulling me away from X, Y, or Z.

What if I don’t know what my “XYZ” North Stars are?

However – at the moment, I’ve noticed that even with a few vague callings and interests, I struggle to identify what my X, Y, or Z is.

So maybe X is merely: to find or choose X, Y, and Z.

A quote from Neistat comes to mind:

"In life you should be doing one of two things: (1) figuring out what you're most passionate about (your dreams in life), and (2) realizing those passions and dreams. — Number 1 is much harder than 2."

The trap that I keep falling in is trying to identify what my 10/20/30 year passion, goal, interest, career is going to be.

Heck, maybe my most meaningful career doesn’t even EXIST in the world yet. (Some of the work I do now wasn’t even an option 15 years ago.)

So maybe I simply lean on what I’m passionate and curious about now, even if I might change my mind in 7 months. — Or literally pick something, anything.

I think I could learn so much more “trying whatever I have now” instead of trying to identify my ‘massive soul level calling’ or ‘one career I’m going all in on’.

Otherwise I’ll continue to wait — and do nothing at all.

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Photo by Ben Robbins on Unsplash