MyklK

For me, I am a list person.  And I’m not.

I like making lists.  It can actually feel the items dripping out of my brain and onto the list.  I then have space to add new things to my mental memory banks.

But there’s the problem I see in many places.  I don’t have a good name for it though.  Well, when you don’t have a good name for something you give it a little description and call it a “syndrome.”  So this is “I declared it, so it’s done” syndrome.

I sit in meetings where we discuss a course of action.  The discussion can get elevated and when we come to a decision, it feels like we really did something.  But we didn’t do anything!  We decided to do something.  That’s not the same as carrying out the decision – I have to keep reminding myself of this, because I suffer from this syndrome.

So when I make a “to do” list (or a “will do” list, or a “wish to do” list, or a “should do” list, or now a “do do” list…), I think that putting it on the list accomplishes something.  I think that is because I feel the dripping out sensation.  I think what I need to find is the feeling of accomplishment.

This leads me to a life coaching question, “What have you done well, lately?”  This could be refined to yesterday, or even so far today.  This question puts aside the nice feeling you get from “I declared it, so it’s done” syndrome, and actually asks you to dig in and recognize actual accomplishments.

Then as a follow up, you just ask clarifying questions.  “How do you plan to continue doing this?”  “What else could you do to build on this?”  “How did you feel when you recognized you achieved this accomplishment?”

This is a great self-coaching session you can have with yourself whenever you need to step it up a notch and actually accomplish what’s on your list and not just be a list maker.

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