Errors of ignorance versus errors of ineptitude

In his latest book (The Checklist Manifesto), surgeon Atul Gawande makes a simple yet profound distinction. Some mistakes are made because the person doesn’t know enough or know the right information or have the right skills (these are errors of ignorance), but other mistakes arise from not applying what we know.

In implementing strategies to move my life, work and income in the direction of freeing my time from money and still making a meaningful positive impact on the world, I must admit most of the mistakes and missteps I have made have been from not applying what I know.

I procrastinate on implementing what I know would help move me forward: hiring some more outsourcing help to implement the overwhelming number of ideas for projects I constantly generate; hiring a coach/project manager to “herd my cats,” that is, to help me stay focused and working on the right things and moving projects to completion in a more systematic and timely manner.

So, this post is to get you thinking about what kind of mistakes you make: Do you need more information or skills? Or do you need to use what you already know in a better way?

Balance, shmalance

“I’ve never lived with balance, but I’ve always liked the notion,” goes a line from a Bruce Cockburn song. That line made me smile when I first heard it because it articulated something I have long felt. I am uninterested in balance. I want the freedom to become obsessed with and follow anything my little heart (and big soul) desires. Sometimes that’s work; sometimes that’s spending time with my lover; sometimes it’s just sitting around being fallow, doing nothing in particular.

That is why I become obsessed with creating a Life of Freedom. That’s why I left jobs in the early ’80s. Even when I started my own business, although that created more flexibility of what I could do with my time (and no one was directing me), I still had to work a lot to make the kind of income I wanted.

When I began working on creating more sources of automated and passive income a few years ago, that finally gave me Life of Freedom I wanted. Ironically, an outsider would say I live a balanced life. I read several books a week; I write a book a year; I take several months off work each year; I play music almost every day when I am not traveling; I exercise 6 days a week; I spend lots of time with my partner; I go to several movies a week; I do several teleseminars or webinars per month; I make my own meals; etc., etc.

But if some new interest engages me, most of the time I can devote days or weeks to pursuing it.

That is freedom. Not balance; but freedom.

What are you doing to create Your Life of Freedom?

Life’s too short & life’s too long to live like that

I was reading Tim Ferriss’ blog and he quoted Seneca, the Roman Stoic philosopher.

It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is—the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. Just as great and princely wealth is scattered in a moment when it comes into the hands of a bad owner, while wealth however limited, if it is entrusted to a good guardian, increases by use, so our life is amply long for him who orders it properly. – Lucius Seneca, On the Shortness of Life

It brought to mind one of the points of this blog. I think life is both too short and too long to spend it doing lots of stuff you don’t prefer or that isn’t meaningful and important to you (and the world, hopefully). Several years ago, I thought through my life, which, to my mind, has been blessed in many ways, and decided I was much too busy. I didn’t attend to my friends as much as I wanted. I didn’t have enough time to read as much as I wanted. I didn’t take time for fitness and physical health. I didn’t play music as often as I wanted.

Those things are in part why I embarked on this journey to arrange my work life and income so it didn’t take up so much time.

How are you allocating your time? Is your life filled with what you want it to be filled with, for the most part? Or is it dominated by stuff you don’t like or enjoy or find meaning in?

I had to make a few changes, some of them minor and some major, to shift my life in the desired direction. I had to learn some tech stuff that was a stretch for me and not that easy. I had to invest some initial time in a time-starved life to free up some time. I had to say “no” to many things and suffer the anxiety of worrying that other people would be upset or that I had turned down an opportunity that might have been a good one and I would miss out.

What changes and challenges face you on Your Life of Freedom?

P.S. Here’s something that may bring the point fo this post home to you. Visit: http://www.wolframalpha.com/ and type in your birthdate. It will show you how many days you have been alive so far. (When I did it recently, I discovered that I’d been alive for 20,746 days so far). Have I used all those days well? Probably not. Can I use the remaining days well? Probably a bit better. Life’s too short AND Life’s too long. How you gonna spend your days?