Motivate Me: The importance of to-don't lists

Do you have a to do list? Endless lists of things to do, but more importantly things that do not need to be done.

I disappoint myself sometimes,  I have grand plans, great ones even, but the boring, the mundane takes over. Must remember to do the washing, take out the garbage (rubbish..sic), motivate the kids to help clean the house of the detrius of school holidays. Given recent events at Virginia Tech it all seems a little pathetic really.

Why should I care about the activities of a lone gun man half way around the world? Why should I allow it to affect me so much?

Well there are a couple of reasons:

My children are based at a school with its share of violent kids, drug takers and lesson dodgers. My daughter is just a few years away from choosing the uni which will determine the next phase of her life, and my son will follow her after a couple of years. Some of the victims in the most recent shootings were not much older than my kids.

The other major reason is that I happen to know a professor who works at Virginia Tech. All of a sudden, my usual aloofness to worldwide events has been dealt a blow. This has become personal. It also made me realise how "small" my life has become. I feel that it is time to make some radical changes to my life - after all we don't know what "grand plans" other people have for us.