Someday Syndrome

The History of Alex

Like Canada, I have too much geography and not enough history.

Last night I was out for dinner with three men who were 40, 48 and close to 60. They ended up showing me old photos. I enjoyed being invited into the personal histories of each of these men. I talked about my own experiences, but I missed not being able to share my own visual history.

While I was building a wall today (see picture), I thought about my pictures. I've never been a photo person (learned from my parents who don't take many photos), plus I'm the youngest in the family, so I actually have very few photos of me. And of course, I have none of them here.

I've decided therefore that when I am back in Toronto, I am going to track down photos of myself from childhood to now and put them up on the blog. That way, when I come back to Spain and France in the winter, I can mix a bit of history in with all this geography.

Of course, being the vain guy I am, all the photos I choose will either be good ones, or funny ones. But the fat pictures do not go up. Well maybe, if only as comparison.

Someday Lessons:

• Our stuff tells our history, which is why it's so easy to hold onto everything.
• Don't stew over things you can't change right away. Figure out a plan then let go of the worry.

A Ticking Clock

A bomb counting down, which the hero stops with one second to spare...

Wasting time doing something you hate when so much else needs doing…

Lying awake at night worrying about all your unfinished tasks...

There are no positive images associated with a ticking clock. Time is the enemy. We struggle to get more done in less time. Clients used to ask me how to be more productive. Friends and family working in the corporate world regularly work more than the once standard nine-to-five workday. And new small business owners often do fifty to sixty hours just to survive.

And yet, no one gets enough done.

Of course many corporate employees can't complain about the work hours. There's always someone else ready to step in, likely for less money. And if small businesses want to become profitable, the high hours are necessary.

Sounds pretty hopeless, eh?

We need to adopt a new time attitude, create positive images of a ticking clock. Instead of trying to be more productive in less time, we need to focus on taking enough time to do things well.

But the business world is too often more interested in deadlines than quality (see the latest problems with Microsoft's Windows' update Vista). And unless we experience some sort of time revolution on a personal or societal scale, the ticking clock will always be our enemy.

Someday Lessons:

• Stop fighting the clock. It's always going to win.
• Make a conscious decision for quality over quantity.

Five Months Gone

Cate leaves today. I'm staying in Bordeaux for a couple of more days to see some friends, then I'm back to Sauveterre and back to regular life.

I can't believe that Cate's visit has come and gone already. When we planned it in July; it seemed so far away. I've now been in France for almost five months. I have only two and a half months left on my apartment lease.

That just seems wrong.

I haven't done enough yet! My French stills needs tonnes of improvement, my novel's not finished (even first draft) and I haven't even started the Someday Syndrome book yet!

But then again, I didn't come to France to write a book (or books). I came to France to explore France and to realize a dream. In the time I have been here, I've made a decision to pursue writing as a profession, to become an author.

Not a bad accomplishment for five months, I'd say.

Someday Lessons:

• Time moves more quickly than we expect.
• Live moving forwards, not regretting backwards.

A Nice Slow City

If Sauveterre is my favourite piece of French countryside, then Bordeaux is my favourite city (so far!).

Bordeaux is not a city with too little time. It's a city of wide people-only streets, large sun-filled squares, and open cafés, all inviting people to stop a moment and look around. The city's transit system, the Tramway, is also relaxed. It doesn't move at high speeds, it shares its routes with pedestrians and passes by once every seven minutes. Hard to believe ten years ago the city was clogged with traffic!

Along the river front, the Tramway tracks run through grass. That to me says more about the pace of life in Bordeaux than anything else. It's a city where the aesthetics of commuting are considered as important and speed and ease of movement.

Originally when I came to France, I thought that I could not live in a city and write. Too much activity in a city, too little time for relaxation and writing. But Bordeaux defies that. It's a fair size city – it has everything I could need, much of it more conveniently located than in Toronto. And it's a city of pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers. A car is NOT a necessity in Bordeaux.

At dinner on Friday night with friends, a posse of rollerbladers flowed past the front of the restaurant. It took a moment to process what I saw. It wasn't just a few friends. It was at least twenty people out together on a Friday night. Can you imagine that? "What are you doing this weekend?" "I'm going rollerblading Friday night. Wanna come?" So not a Toronto thing.

I like to think that they made frequent patio stops. Bums in chairs, legs splayed to avoid sliding off the seat, coffees, beers and glasses of wine to help spur along the next leg of the trip.

Someday Lessons:

• View where you live as a tourist would. Take the time to notice everything.
• If you can't "find time" to relax, join a group and force yourself!

Lunch Today:
A slice of pizza.

Get Off the Adrenalin Pony

My sister added a comment to my Plethora of Should post: life is 80% mundane. I think that number is low. Writers always say: Writing is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. Life is like that for most people. Horrifying thought, but if you consider a typical day, how much of it is out of the ordinary? People are creatures of habit. Many bad habits.

This is why most of us feel we don't have enough time. Having been weaned on a pop culture that says instant gratification doesn't happen quickly enough, we have all become adrenalin junkies. With a 95% mundane life, our sources of the next adrenalin fix are pretty scarce. We expect everything to give us a hyper-caffeine jolt – even if it lasts for only a millisecond.

So, we create crises to get our needed adrenalin hit by procrastinating, squeezing too much into our schedules and (my favourite) only doing what we want to.

My missed bus fiasco last week is a perfect example of the adrenalin addiction. If I had gotten ready the night before, I would have seen the proper time and would have been fine. But I procrastinated and manufactured a crisis.

The answer? Kick the adrenalin habit: stop procrastinating, and cut down your schedule to something manageable. Oh, and stop manufacturing crises.

In my case I so can't see that happening… You?

Someday Lessons:

• Almost all time crises are self-manufactured.
• Most of us would rather stare at a blank wall than do mundane tasks.

Lunch Today:
Steak, Potato Chips and Sautéed Pepper and Tomatoes.

Naps are Good

I don't get the bus system here in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. I have a Toronto friend visiting from England (or is that an English friend from Toronto? Something like that). Anyway, we decided today to go into St Palais, a village to the south of Sauveterre with a few good brocantes (antique shops – I still need a table). The bus would leave Sauveterre at 12:50 and arrive in St Palais just after one o'clock.

Perfect, just in time for lunch. But then in checking the return schedule, we learned that the bus was going to come back from St Palais at 2:30, meaning we'd have just over an hour to shop in a town that's closed for lunch (yes, rural France shuts down between noon and two o'clock).

Our other option was to walk back (12km) or take a taxi (20 euros). We thought we'd do the walking thing, but while waiting for the bus, we decided that it was too hot to do anything so active. Instead we went back to the apartment, had lunch and napped for an hour and a half.

In checking out schedules, we noticed that the bus to Salies de Béarn (north of us) left Sauveterre at 4:30pm returning at 8:40. Definitely a more civilized time.

This area is really not conscious of tourists without cars. Or of people who live here without cars. You'd think this was North America with the area's dependence on the car!

But I'm off topic. Today is about limited time. If we had stuck to the one hour time limit in St Palais, we would have rushed about town, not gotten what we wanted done, and felt unsatisfied with the results.

For how many of you does that sound like a normal day?

When faced with a day like that, try to find a way to have a nap and go into Salies instead (i.e., find time to relax and get other things done). Time is limited only by our choices of what we do with it and what are our priorities each day. During time-crunched days, take a look at the big picture and decide what else you could do in the time available that won't leave you feeling crunched.

Someday Lessons:

1. Time is only limited by our choices.
2. If something can't be done now, do another task and schedule the first one later.

Lunch Today:
Sausages (so fresh!), green beans (straight from the farm!) and corn bread (baked two hours previously!). Oh and of course, Sauce Basque (still obsessed with it).