Riley's Goal: Consistency in Chaos
My Struggle Between Consistency and Priorities
August Reflections
But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
'Cause it was never mine
Let's talk about consistency and priorities, two areas I've struggled with this Month. They are a big part of my journey to become a better and “more productive” Air Force officer, and frankly, a better and more productive human being. When I say "productive," I always feel the need to emphasize the importance of being effective with my time toward my priorities—not toward other people's values and priorities.
So let’s dive in
Consistency
The top-of-mind example is actually this newsletter. I've struggled to consistently put out newsletters over the last few weeks, and a big reason is that life has been extremely demanding this month. I started August with a two-week training exercise where, on the first & last day, I had a 30ish hour duty-day working straight through. I also had to shift to night shifts for that period, which was… challenging - let’s be real, mainly because the main option for food was Dennys…
Honestly, my entire focus and energy were on work—and rightfully so—because this was a pretty intense exercise.
I was only back at work for a few days before I turned around and left for Fairfax Comic Con with my buddy
. Our entire focus was on our book-writing collaboration and manning a booth to get the word of out to the masses. This is a really fun and creative project that I'm more than excited to devote a lot of time and energy to. Buuuuut the long and short of it is that these two events really took all of my spare energy this month. They were the priority, and naturally, this newsletter—and even my personal YouTube channel—had to take a back seat.But hey, here’s an awesome video I made about our experience:
When You Can’t do Everything
As I reflect on this, I'm struggling to know how I feel about it. On one hand, I know it's not feasible to have a newsletter every week when life is throwing you in the deep end. On the other hand, I know there are things I could have done, in hindsight, to bank and pre-write content for the YouTube channel and this newsletter so that I wouldn't have missed any weeks. Long-term, growing this message as a business is my main priority, but it's not always the most urgent thing at the moment. So, at times like this, I struggle with when to give myself some grace for not being “the most productive guy ever” and when to put a little pressure on myself to put better systems in place.
The reality is sinking in as I prepare for a six-month deployment where work will be extremely demanding. I'm hoping to have downtime to work on my writing, YouTube channel, and building the foundation of this business, but I know there will be times when that's just not possible.
Priorities
This is where priorities come in. Priorities are really difficult because I've clearly defined my own core values and priorities through my LifeFocus exercise. But recently, I've been struggling because many of these are long-term and aspirational priorities that can't always be at the top of the list in the short term.
I don't always have the option to say no—or maybe I shouldn't have that option in the short term—because life balance requires choosing the right timing and place to bump certain things up and down on the priority list.
That was my reality these past few weeks.
Anywho, these are my thoughts—pretty unfiltered—but that's where I am right now.
See ya’ll this Friday for a proper “Riley’s Friday Focus.”
Until next time, MTFBWY
—Riley