My goal is to try to be as objective and scientific as possible in this process. How do you sort out the first step? I saw this image online. It reminded me that life is already happening. For some reason I have often felt that life would begin after something. After I graduate from High School. After I graduate from college. After I get my career on track. After I get married. After the kids are grown. As a result, we just go along day after day just doing stuff while we wait for life to finally begin. It is a crazy way to think but it isn't our fault. For better or worse. Accidentally or intentionally. We've been conditioned to think that way. I remember seeing an interview where Roger Waters of Pink Floyd described this same notion.

I'm reminded of Earl Nightingale's speech, “The Strangest Secret”. We're conforming. Most people have jobs and get along well enough, but I would wager that if given the choice people would rather be doing something else. If we continue to do just what they do, we can expect the same results.

As I step back in search of the starting point, 3 things keep coming to mind. The first is Simon Sinek Start With Why. The Second is Earl Nightingale The Strangest Secret and the third is the Strategic Management Project Management. The concepts in these works will serve as the framework for Operation: Steady Bunny.

Which brings me here. How can I “build the life that I want” when I still haven't defined “What I Want”. Axioms come to mind like “If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.” or “Build a life that you don't need a vacation to get away from.” That is the sort of thing that I'm shooting for, something that I'm passionate about. Something that I'm excited to get started on every day. The problem is finding something that I'm legitimately passionate about. I'm into a wide variety of things but nothing rises to the level of getting a tattoo of it.

I need a scientific method of determining what I love. I need something with clearly stated objectives and well-defined criteria. I'd prefer to do as much of this research in a lab environment instead of the Mike Rowe approach of trying to hundreds of jobs.

I'm trying to figure out what I'm passionate about or at least the types of things I like. My first idea is to make a pair of lists.

• 50 things I want to do more of
• 20 things I want to do less of

I set the number at 50 for the “Do More” because I want to make it challenging to complete the list. It would be easy to list 10 things that you'd like to do more of. I felt that there might be some revelation in the final few items if you have to struggle to come up with 50. Maybe 50 isn't enough.

The “Do less of list” is only 20 because you'll never escape all the things you don't want to do. Just focus on the main things that you hope to do less of. This list is primarily to balance out the other list and to illuminate any mutually exclusive, contradictory paradox situations. It also provides the borders of what I want to be when I grow up. If “Being around animals” is on my “Do less” list, then veterinarian is probably not what I want to be when I grow up.

The List of 50 things that I want to do more of, reminds me of a story I read in which a guy approaches Warren Buffet for career advice. Warren tells the guy to write up a list of 25 career goals. The guy goes and does this and brings his completed list of 25 career goals back to Warren Buffet. Warren looks the list over then hands it back and says, “Circle the 5 that are the most important and interesting to you.” The guy ponders his list and eventually circles 5. He passes the list back to Warren who says, “Pursue these and forget the rest. They will rob you of focus and energy.”

Whether this story is true or not, it makes me cringe because it makes perfect sense, but I don't know if I could commit to this strategy. I like to dabble in too many things. The fact that I said “dabble” should tell you that these things aren't important enough to fully pursue. It is harsh but I need to face the facts. Our minutes are finite, and I need to make my minutes count. The best way to do that is strip away the dabbling distractions.

For example, I have some guitars and some bass guitars and some amps. A couple of times a year, I'll get them out tune them up and jam around for a few hours. I'll play some old favorites and try to play some forgotten pieces before putting them away. If I were to practice a bit, I could be in a local party band but is that where I want to be. Sure, it is fun but long term? I can pretty much guarantee that I won't give it the dedication needed to take it anywhere. Does that dictate that I should sell off that musical equipment and never give it another thought? That is really tough to do.

Our endeavors are like tomato plants. Our resources, such as time and effort are limited. We have to decide how we allocate those resources. If we spread them thinly across the plants, we can probably keep 10 plants alive. If we really want them to be fruitful, we need to provide the water and nutrients to allow them to do that. Unfortunately, that means we can only have 4 plants instead of 10.

My New Year's resolution for 2023 was to spend my time more purposefully. It is easy to get into the plop and watch rut. Especially when it gets dark at 4:00pm and the weather is poor. I've resolved to stay focused on making progress. It doesn't mean I can't watch stuff. It does mean that binge watching is out and I need to combine watching with something more productive.

Have you heard of IKIGAI?