To Do or Not To Do
The Quandary of Cosmic To-Do Lists
Our lives become a struggle in working on the to-do list that manifests the life vision our hearts want most.
When rewriting your overly crowded to-do list is your biggest priority instead of something that is actually on the to-do list, you have a priority problem.
You know, those to-do lists that start to look like this:
There’s a better way to organize the to-do lists for various areas of your life than just scribbling everything onto a disorganized page.
You may have tasks on your to-do list that belong to various categories of your life such as:
•job related tasks
•errands/chores/home projects
•health related to-dos
•reminders & prompts
•personal activities that move you towards your life vision & goals
Knowing which category or task to prioritize can overwhelm you so much, you seek relief in the tasks that are the simplest but the least important.
You may even seek to engage in other activities not on the list and nothing ever seems to get accomplished.
I can relate to all of this.
My to-do list is riddled with tasks for my day job, tasks for my personal business, tasks for creative projects, exercise reminders, home decor, health check-up reminders, lyrics to a song I’m writing…
The list goes on.
When I finally get it all written out, it isn’t long before something else pops up but by then my to-do list is already so crowded that I need to rewrite it just for peace of mind.
I have even taken to writing multiple to-do lists to categorize them by the type of goal each task serves.
This way at least I can choose which goal to work on at any given time based on how much mental & emotional bandwidth I have for that given category.
Even with a clear grasp on the tasks you must do (or must experiment with) it can still be a stressful quandary of decision paralysis to know which task you should focus on.
Often we find ourselves tackling the simplest, easiest task on our lists just to experience a little surge of dopamine and feel like we’ve accomplished something.
In the end though, this can just be another form of procrastination by putting off the most decisive actions we could take to move us towards our big-story vision.
I do use project management software at work and for personal business tasks but personally I like to write out the important tasks and have that analog interaction with pen and paper, especially when it comes to crossing something off.
I recommend pen and paper for those with a deeper mission.
To-do lists don’t have to be stressful.
In fact when you approach them from the right mindset, they can serve as a guiding script for how you handle the productive hours of your day.
To do this (haha) we must remember to always keep our cosmic to-do list in mind.
What is a cosmic to-do list?
A cosmic to-do list is my term for the list of things you wish to accomplish and experience in your lifetime.
I don’t mean goals that serve your job’s accomplishments or other people’s goals while neglecting your own dreams or life vision.
I am talking about the things that fulfill your life purpose.
The reason you are here living this life.
Too often we get sidetracked from the things that matter by thinking we need to accomplish certain tasks that society, our jobs, our family/peers convince us are important.
Yes, we should do things for our loved ones that help them on their path towards their life visions.
However, we can get so caught up in things that don’t advance us towards our own goals that we stop making progress.
Yes there are tasks that we sometimes need to accomplish in order to maintain our living conditions that are not aligned with our personal goals.
I try to view these tasks as mundane chores, like eating.
We have to eat to maintain our survival.
Though the act of eating doesn’t directly contribute to our goal of one day working for ourselves, publishing a book, or being able to one day fly a paraglider over our favorite mountain range, it is necessary to keep our heads and bodies in the game.
When we keep our cosmic to-do list in mind, we remember our purpose. The things we are here to accomplish, experience, and share with others.
How the majority of people handle their cosmic to-do lists
Most people archive their cosmic to-do away in their brain’s memory banks and categorize it as something to tackle later in life.
Usually they decide to wait to do it at a later time in life and hope that circumstances will be more favorable for tackling it at some unknown future date.
This decision is rooted in the motivational triad that we are hardwired to follow to maintain our creature comforts.
I wrote about this in a previous letter called Simple Reminders for when you Get Distracted from your Creative Mission.
The motivational triad maps all the reasons why we choose to do or not to do something.
The motivational triad summarizes the three reasons why people and animals do or don’t do something.
They are:
Avoid pain
Seek pleasure
Conserve energy
Typically when we first confront something on our cosmic to-do list we have to push through a barrier of pain.
Pain is not comfortable so instead we decide to do something else that gives us cheap but instant pleasure.
Avoiding the pain with a simple pleasure is a means of conserving energy.
So by postponing working on our cosmic goals we are following our animal nature.
Why postponing your cosmic to-do list doesn’t work
The problem when we postpone our cosmic to-do list by avoiding pain, seeking exterior pleasure, and conserving energy is we make no progress on our personal goals.
The avoidance weakens our resolve.
We become accustomed to the habit of postponement and it becomes second-nature.
This weakens our ability to stand up for our goals and keep them in the forefront of our minds.
We may start to deceive ourselves and see other people’s goals or society’s goals as our own.
In fact, this happens to the vast majority of people once they reach a certain threshold.
Societal pressures tighten their grip on you.
This happened to me for years.
I became so focused on the desire to save money and so focused on the pain of my failures, that I lost touch with my natural goals of expressing myself through writing and video.
I began to obsess on stock market investing, checking miniscule movements every few minutes and assessing the gain/loss of my investments.
I’d read about companies I had already read about a thousand times just as a way to avoid the initial emotional pain of starting to work on my writing again.
Lulls in our focused creative work are natural. We need time away from them sometimes to come back with a refreshed perspective.
Personally I spent too much time obsessing on what went wrong in my creative approach to my cosmic to-do list, instead of just beginning again and continuing the work.
If you want to solve your conundrum and start making progress on your life vision, there is a new mindset and tactic you need to employ to start making gains.
When we choose to actively work on our cosmic to-do list, our lives become more fulfilling and live each day with a sense of purpose.
How to actively work on your cosmic to-do list
In order to actively work on your cosmic to-do list and make consistent progress that revitalizes your consciousness, fulfillment, and sense of purpose in life, you need to have clarity over what you’re working towards.
You don’t need to know exactly what your final outcome will look like but you need to have clarity over what actions you should be doing to work towards an outcome in line with your vision.
Having a project that shapeshifts and turns out differently than you imagined is okay and can actually work to your advantage.
The consistency comes in the form of the regular actions we must perform to progress.
So if for example you want to publish a book someday, you need to envision the process of writing a book.
Writing a book won’t happen in one sitting, and the exact words will not all come to you at a certain future date once you no longer have to worry about finances or relationships or whatever excuses you make for postponing.
You need to be regularly writing, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and actively putting words down on a page.
The process is the same with any goal – you need to make consistent effort by MAKING time for your creative endeavors.
Even just a tiny bit of focused effort consistently every day, or every few days, will compound overtime.
You will get more excited about your goal after a series of sequential sessions.
Starting out may be slow, especially if you’ve been avoiding the goal for a while but this is not a reason to avoid it even longer.
How to get Started on your Cosmic To-Do List
Start by writing out the things you want to accomplish and experience in your life before you die.
Consider everything you want that would make this lifetime complete for you.
Then visualize what tasks you need to do to realize those visions over time.
Start small but praise yourself big.
Even outlining your life map is a HUGE step that a lot of people never take.
Get busy making time to work on those steps each week.
Ideally everyday working on a cosmic to-do list task is what you want, but I will be realistic and say that sometimes life does get in the way and we do need breaks.
The trick is to recognize the excuses or choices you make to avoid working on your cosmic to-do list when you do have an opportunity.
Over time you will get stronger at cutting out the unnecessary distractions and excuses.
Remember that this is a lifelong pursuit.
You do not need to be perfect at this, you just need to regularly show up for yourself and that life vision you have.
Look back at your past self often to notice how far you have come.
Even a shift in your mindset towards a more positive outlook on what you are capable of is a sign of MASSIVE progress.
Keep your head up, and keep going.
You are the artist of your own life and you are working on a masterpiece.
-Brady C Snow
6/26/23
How I can Help You
Book a Free Creative Strategy Call with me if you want some guidance on how to devise a plan for your creative project.
https://calendly.com/bradysnow/contentstrategycall
I will help you clarify your action steps, make a content strategy that aligns with your goals and give you a game plan for how to get the ball rolling.
