One of my long-time mentors once told me that the most important truth he’s learned is this:
The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty and discomfort you can handle.
When you’re filling out your card each day, how much are you factoring in both uncertainty and discomfort? None of us can be certain how the day will go as we fill our card with our aims for the day. And it’s almost guaranteed that at some point during the day, we’ll feel discomfort—which usually serves to throw off our motivation to achieve our aims.
In either case, the answer is to leave room for yourself at the outset. Leave room for some tasks to balloon a bit into larger, more involved ones. Leave room for yourself to handle the discomfort that comes—whether you write about it, rest when you realize it, or push through it in some healthy way.
Leaving yourself time to do any of those things to deal with the discomfort can only serve to help you stay productive today, and become better at handling the inevitable discomfort that will come your way as long as you’re living.
Once again, it all comes back to really knowing yourself. The more you know yourself, the more you can anticipate potential pitfalls. But a better knowledge of yourself can also help you immensely for the things you can’t anticipate. Come what may, knowing how your mind operates, and how circumstances affect it, is one of the most valuable pieces of knowledge you can have in order to stay intentional with your days.
