Title: PLAYING TETRIS WITH TIME MANAGEMENT Author: Dave & Christine Turo-Shields, ACSW, LCSW Email: mailto:editor@overcoming-depression.com copyright: by Dave Turo-Shields, ACSW, LCSW Web Address: http://www.Overcoming-Depression.com Word Count: 549 Category: Success

PLAYING TETRIS WITH TIME MANAGEMENT

There I was, running around trying to juggle umpteen items and doing only a fair job of it at best. There was my therapy business, and I have been putting big pieces into place to add coaching to my business along with having to prepare a presentation for an annual convention. Then there's family, kids' needs, marital needs... You know what I mean.

Suddenly I thought about my wife. I began to notice how smoothly she manages tasks in her life. It would have been really easy to miss because she really does make it look effortless, but when you add up sheer number of things she does... WHOA! Absolutely amazing!

So, about two weeks ago I asked her if she would teach me how she juggles so much so well. She asked for a few days to think about it. She said, "Honestly, I just do it, so I'll have to think more about how it is that I do all I do. " Here is what she came up with.

How much of your life is directed from foundation of unexamined mythology? What if we are all enacting some sort of story in our lives?

Now what do I mean by story? I mean that we have some vision, set of ideas, or beliefs about ourselves that define us as a central character in what could be called a "myth" or "story" that we're living out. All of elements of story have been either passed down as part of our culture or upbringing, intuited, or we've just plain made up. We then go about enacting our stories as if it they were true, thus embodying script from which we live our lives.

So now you may say, "yes I can certainly buy that, I'm very well aware that we are a product of our own thoughts and beliefs. So what's big deal?"

The big deal is this. The vast majority of us don't know that we're enacting a story. We actually think this is real life that we're living! (see movie Matrix for a great metaphor). By real life, I mean that we're approaching life based on a set of assumptions that aren't necessarily backed by good evidence. So when you don't know that you're enacting a story, you are completely at its mercy with little control over role you play and course it takes.

The story we enact often comes to us piecemeal and/or non-verbally. It may include stuff we "read between lines," and unexamined assumptions. If you were to examine each single element of your story by itself, it might appear obvious to you, even if you'd never articulated it before. If all elements, however, were collected and given voice so that they were presented to your conscious awareness, you might be very surprised at what you find. In fact, you may be shocked to point you would want to forget story entirely.

Now to make matters even more complicated, in addition to enactingour own individual stories, we are also part of stories which are bigger than us. We are enacting stories within our relationships with individuals, and groups we are involved in, such as our families, work groups, community organizations, our countries, etc. Even our civilization itself is acting out a story, much of which we may not even be aware.

As a facilitator, you will encounter groups who are troubled, often because they are enacting an unexamined story whose course they feel powerless to alter. Helping them unravel their story will grant them power over it. In other words, until you know you're an author, you cannot change what you're writing.

propose that we will enact whatever story we choose to adopt as our own, and will settle for best one available. If we don't take time to create a better one, we'll continue enacting our current story, even if it isn't working all that well for us.