BlissQuest: Honestly, Where's Your Energy Going?

Our Japanese Maple is on fire right now!

Listening to: Something different.

Bliss: The quiet coming through my window right now. So quiet that I am hearing the wings flapping on a small bird in the front tree. Peace.

I read once that talent is way less important to success than determination and drive, and I believe this with all my heart. You can have all the natural ability in the world, but if you don't know how to focus it, how to channel you, well, you are pretty much screwed.

This has been a big lesson for me to learn personally.

Sure, I can tell you all about how it's the fault of the stuff that was drilled into my head from the time I was quite young: that I was lazy; that I would never stick to anything; that I would postpone until I ran out of time.

I can tell you that those voices, which are no longer physically in my life, pitched camp in my head for far too long. Once those voices moved from someone else's mouth to my head, though, they became 100% my responsibility. I fed them. I made room for them.

The important part of this story would be that I booted them. Told them to get lost. Told them they were no longer welcome in these parts! Git!

To be more honest, though, I would have to tell you that those voices are persistent buggers that I have to deal with in cycles. They are never truly gone. They might recede, but like mold, they grow back if I am not vigilant with the daily cleaning.

So when I read about this exercise in the book Fearless Living, it totally scared me because I knew instantly what it would tell me and I did not like it one bit. No, sir!

But any exercise that scares you is usually worth trying.

Keep in mind that this is not meant to turn you into some timeNazi. No, quite the opposite really. This exercise is meant to help you get more honest.

So many people think they are too busy to have the lives that they want, but in reality, they are too busy with the wrong things. This exercise is here to show you what wrong things you are spending your precious energy on. It is meant to help you re-align your energy usage with your actual priorities.

Here we go:

First, write down what your main priorities are in life. YOUR priorities. The things that are most important to YOU. Not the stuff that you think have to do for other people. Be as selfish as possible.

Next, write down how it is that you think you spend your time. Break your day into sections.

Now, put those sheets of paper away.

Try to do the following for a minimum of one week. Longer would be better.

Here's the hard part:

Every half hour, write down how you spent your time. Be honest. That is so important. If you just sat and stewed over something that happened at a job, write that down. If you watched Judge Judy, write that down. No one ever has to see this.

Remember, do this every day for at least a week.

Then go back, create categories, and add it all up.

You will see a picture emerge. You may say your priority is to become the best writer you can, but your days show something completely different.

Because where you put your energy is where your priorities actually live.

Do your energy expenditures match your priorities? If not, what can you to correct this?

You'll never live your bliss if you don't live your bliss today!