The Glorification of Accomplishment

Photo Credit: www.courtneyrian.com, Creative Commons

I am a planner. I love to-do lists and a full calendar. I love making dinner dates and reserving tickets well in advance. I will never be the "live by the seat of my pants" type and spontaneity is not one of my stronger suits.

However, lately I've been looking at my desire for constantly filled days with a little more scrutiny. I absolutely love the feeling of counting off all the things I did during the day as I fall asleep at night. It doesn't matter at all what the activities were but the more the better.

A day that looks like: post office, laundry, grocery shop, paint nails, work out, is just as good as a day that consists of: hike in the morning with friend, afternoon baking cookies, dinner with the beau.

What is wrong with this picture?

It seems like this could be good right? It could seem like I've taken the spiritual path and started valuing every activity no matter what.  Turns out this isn't the case at all. What I like about recapping my day is the doneness. I find gratification in the that I did something.

I value the time I spent doing the thing and I congratulate myself on those filled-to-the brim days for doing as many things as possible. When I fall asleep,  instead of savoring a day filled with all the things I love to do, the day that I accomplished more gives me more satisfaction.

This has gotta change.

Glorification of Busy has become a concept worth snubbing, but I think the Glorification of Accomplishment is a more adequate description of the phenomenon. It is so easy to extrapolate "I did this much today..." to "I did this much this month!" or "... this year". After awhile what we have done becomes more important than what we are going to do or what we are doing right this moment.

In an effort to continue my new year goal of letting go of control, I am also making a point to release this attachment to what has been done. If I crossed thirty things off my to-do list today, great! If I did one thing today, hopefully it was shower. But either way, I know I have better things to occupy my brain before falling asleep at night.

What do you think about the Glorification of Accomplishment?