HTR, Phase 2

What I want to write about at the moment is the wonderfully beautiful functionality of my new rolling briefcase/carry on. But I promised an explanation of how sewing relates to HTR Phase 2, so that is what you will get. Don't be surprised if you get a second post today.

Somewhere in the last several months, it occurred to me that HAVE TO reduction is really a multi generational project. The fact that I see it that way, and am comfortable saying it to you, is a sure sign that I have been doing too many huge corporate projects recently. But that doesn't mean that the concept is wrong. As HAVE TOs go away, other activities will naturally arise to fill the newly freed brain and calendar space. So, Phase 1 finishes and Phase 2 commences - whether you plan for it or not. I like to have a plan. It makes it so much easier to deviate appropriately if I have a plan.

So, my original plan went like this:

Phase 1: Get my current HAVE TOs under control. This meant job management and house management.

Phase 2: Pick up my new HAVE TOs. Small business management. Other?

Phase 3: Sort out my HAVE TO generation process. Check my foundational assumptions. Figure out what my brain is doing when it makes any event a HAVE TO.

See, the plan? Very logical, yes? But it won't work. I'll be traveling for the next 2 weeks (yes, it is only 2 now - but wait! there's more). Then I'll be home for a week, gone for a week (to Switzerland), home for a week, and gone again for a week (to training). In other words, for the next 6 weeks, I'll be home for 2. So, if I pick up the small business work, all I can do is build my style of business systems in place - and then hand my systems back over to HTH who has systems that work for him in place already. Not a good plan.

So, I'm moving onto the Phase 3 as Phase 2. Since it primarily requires my brain and a few outside resources, it will work well with my travel schedule. But I'll confess that this was probably Phase 3 because it is the most difficult for me to do. There are no clear cut deliverables in this phase. It is all pretty nebulous and HIGHLY introspective. Since I'm an activity driven, cross-it-off-my-list kind of person, this kind of work is easy for me to skip.

To help my list driven brain, I'm using a few different resources to shape this time. I'm looking at some of the exercizes in The 4 Hour Workweek. I'm also working through some exercizes on Christine Kane's blog. Her song "If I Were Me" (lyrics here) was one of the inspirations for this phase of HTR. Coincidentally, her blog has included exercizes for working through some of these same ideas in the last few months. As we know, I need small bite sized tasks to get through this big idea, and she seems to think that way, too.

But, some of my shaping is in response to my personally warped world view. A number of my regular HAVE TOs are built on a strange foundation. I call it "camoflague" or "don't look at me". It is a version of "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." I base my appearance - clothes, hair and makeup - not around my personal preferences, but around what I think will be the most invisible in any setting. It is pretty easy to do, since retailers build their business on the concept of mass appeal. But I don't really like much of the stuff I own.

So, FINALLY, we get to sewing. My objective is to make some clothes that I really like - fabric, fit and function. As an added bonus, I'll learn new things (patterns! zippers! waistbands! interfacing! button holes! ) and have an additional creative outlet.

Sewing is not going to be the answer to Phase 2 for most people. That solution comes from my particular wierdness. But I'm thoroughly enjoying both the activity and the humor of sewing as a means of dealing with my own brain. In my world, humor is pretty critical to work through any such serious undertakings. Or, as HTH likes to say, "If you're laughing, you're not leaving!"