What am I going To Be today?

I sometimes get the feeling that my life would come to a standstill without my To Do List - it's my constant reminder of the endless and sometimes quite monotonous chores I need to do each day! With tasks as diverse as buying toothpaste, paying the phone bill and getting the cat speyed, my To Do List has become indispensable to my daily productivity.. if it's not on the list it probably won't get done!


And usually as soon as one thing gets done, another two are added. At the end of the day whatever's left undone on the list gets moved to tomorrow's list and so the days roll into weeks and months and all I seem to have to show for all this doing is an ever increasing pile of ironing and a few more (thankfully sparse) grey hairs.


But if life is made up of all this activity, a lot of which provides very little tangible evidence of all the effort involved, what makes it all worthwhile? How can I bring some meaning to my doing? If we're called Human Beings why do we spend some much time trying to be Human Doings?

So I decided this morning that along with my daily To Do list I needed to create a To Be List - something that would define who I am, something that would set the stage for my 'doing', something that would provide a little bit of meaning to my living.


So I wrote my To Be List - I listed all the qualities I value, all the characteristics I admire in others, all the ways of being that inspire me, and all the traits that I hope people might admire in me. I realised that these were all the things I hoped to be when I finally got to the bottom of my To Do list..all the things I'd become when I finally had a little bit of time...

But the amazing thing that happened when I made my To Be list was that I realised that these were not chores but choices. And I could choose them today, right now, in the midst of my everyday living.
My To Be List brought a new dimension to my To Do List.

So now I can Be Happy while I do the grocery shopping.
I can Be Grateful when I pay the phone bill.
I can Be Creative as I cook the dinner.
I can Be Calm while I get the kids ready for school.
And I can Be Conscious on my early morning run.
I don't have to wait to be all these things.
I can choose to be that person.
Today.
It really is that simple.

So what are you going to be today?