Wednesday, September 5, 2012

What Would Pooh Do? by Pj Schott



 Welcome to September everyone!  It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and that means Pj Schott is here to share some Winnie the Pooh wisdom with us.  


Pj Schott has lived in several U.S. port cities, Europe, Greece, and the Middle East. A marketing professional, mystery writer, and futurist, Pj is known to those with whom she works as a problem-solver, an innovative thinker, a top-notch communicator, a visionary, and the soul of a group. She is the owner of the Boston, Massachusetts based company GENIUS and is the woman behind the new Facebook page and blog, Survival for Blondes, where Pj is entirely surrounded by imagined disasters and learns to rise above.







Labor Day, like any other holiday, is celebrated Chez Pj, in Calvin Klein pajamas, with no face, and a kitchen full of delectables. The phone ceases to ring. The eMail slows down. And most of my friends have better things to do than hang out on Facebook (as if anything could be better than that!!)

With no prep work required to enter the world, few interruptions, and no commute, I had some extra time on my hands. So I decided to tackle my TO DO List. I'm a big David Allen (Getting Things Done) fan. And David says we need to get everything out of our heads and into a trusted system, in this case a fantastic piece of software called OmniFocus.

By Labor Day's end, my trusted system held 271 items. No, you didn't read that wrong. My head was empty, but now I was faced with a list of nearly 300 things I felt I needed to, or wanted to, get done, preferably as soon as possible. This wasn't even taking into account the "Someday/Maybe" category (e.g., travel to Budapest, learn Spanish, drag my novel out of the closet).

Holy moly!! No wonder my previously aching head had felt like it was going to spin right off of my body. A clear mind is a  beautiful thing, but the gruesome, unorganized Task List before me left my mind so boggled, I completely forgot about the thing that was nearest and dearest to my compulsive little heart, i.e., getting ready to hang out with you at Jen's place.

My ACT! database always at the ready, I must have looked right at the appointment I made (with myself) 20 times. And I couldn't see the beautiful tree because I was so busy obsessing over the impenetrable forest of things I had no idea how to get done, even given another ten lifetimes.

But, rather than beat myself up, I thought "What would Pooh do?" That spacey, absent-minded bear, totally obsessed with getting his next honey fix from the beehive, would surely understand and be able and willing to give me some sound advice.

Now, a shrink would probably say Pooh and I are afflicted with inattentive type ADHD, accompanied by co-morbid OCD. Bottom-line, in lay-bears words, this means we try to get stuff done without properly thinking things through.

Do you remember when Pooh dressed up like a rain cloud so he could get to the honey via the sky? Who can't identify? Not about honey, necessarily (don't bother raising your hand if you're a Foodie). My particular obsession happens to be organic dark chocolate, and calculating how I can eat as much as possible without ending up shaped like Pooh!!

Food and counting. These matters were paramount in Pooh's life too. Poor compulsive bear! Poor me!! Our conversation went something like this.

Pj:  What do you think we should do about our Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder?

POOH:  I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.

Pj:  Don't you care that we sometimes forget what it was we were trying to remember?

POOH:  The person you are talking to doesn't appear to be listening.

Pj:  Then I suppose you don't care about our Obsessive Compulsive Disorder either.

POOH:  It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"

Pj:  So I suppose you think we should just ignore our problems.

POOH:  Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing.

So here I sit, doing nothing but what means the most to me. No, not eating chocolate … I'm talkin' to you!!

Thanks Pj for stopping by! 
Have a wonderful day everyone,
Jen
XOXO

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