The Application of Essentialism: Goals

 As part of my annual review of my goals (I say annual; it really feels like an endless visiting and revisiting), I again compared my thinking to the book Essentialism.  I have done this for a number of years now as I have tried to narrow down - or firm up? - what I really want to be spending what is effectively become the last third of my life.

As I did this exercise, I did something I had not done in the past:  I actually started defining things as a goal:  "<Fill in the blank> is a goal".  And after I wrote them down, I did not just adopt them.  I kept writing them down in that form.  And combining them  And eliminating them.  And trying, the author of Essentialism suggests, to boil them down to their core. 

What I ended up with at the end were five (keeping in mind my Rule of Five, which is I can remember no more than five goals or goal areas; also, convenient for counting on one hand).

This is the final set:

1)  Theosis (Greek) or Sanctification (Latin-based) is a goal (they mean the same thing).

2) Significant reading and comprehension of Japanese is a goal.

3) Certification (Menkyo) in Iaijustu is a goal.

4) Ichiryo Gusoku (see here) is a goal.

5)  Financial Independence is a goal.

I know what you are thinking:

A)  "That seems like a high level set of goals" (Yes, it is.  There are sub-goals which feed into these)

B)  "Those seem like a set of not incredibly related goals" (Well, they are, kind of.  The Japanese supports the certification.  The practice of Ichiryo Gusoku supports the financial independence.)

C)  "Financial Independence seems a bit out there."  (Yes, it is - but it also depends how you define Financial Independence.  Is it having all you want, or being content with a life style and having enough?)

D)  "Theosis and/or sanctification?  Vying with with saints, are we?"  (Well, yes. But it is something I should be working on more consistently.)

E) "Can you do any or all of this?"

That is the real question, is it not?   I have created and constructed goals for most of my life, and have never quite gotten where I wanted on most of them.

The reality, though, is that I have been slowly sifting through my life to do these sorts of things for years now.  Iaijutsu has become my one significant extra curricular activity.  I have stuck with Japanese for years and am finally (again) starting to make progress. I am trying more things with gardening to actually get more of a harvest, for example.  And even given the financial circumstances of the world today, there are still actions we can take (and are taking) to move in that direction.

The real question, of course, is if I can commit.

I made a list of activities that I have items to support or do or am interested.  There were a total of 60 different activities on the list.  There is no way I can ever do all of those.  Yes, one does not have to be an expert or even a passing expert at everything (for example, Old English is mentally stimulating but falls into none of the above buckets), but at some point, one simply has to say "I am not going better at that".

In other words, to choose some things means to not choose other things, and I have always struggled with committing.

But it is time.  Because time is passing, and fumbling at things this late in the game is moving me precisely nowhere.