Daniel Koontz yesterday post a great post on writing and giving up. If you had nit read it you should, go here.
The interesting thing with giving up, is that you never give up, you just feel bad about it. I had wrote yesterday post for this blog somedays ago, and I got a lot of encourage messages, but contrary of the article I was not unhappy in any way, actually, I was finishing another post for the Blog of Mind Like Monkey, called: Happiness is a Choice.
I gave up writing, I gave up calling myself a writer, I gave up on my dream of be a published author, at least long time ago, but there was no sense, I love being a writer, I love to say things that inspire the heart to pump, I love to be able to see people get a tear of emotion, I love to move emotions out of the heart of people, I love have a trail of emotions that follow the stuff I write.
Regardless if I give up, the reality is that I can’t, I can’t stop writing and feeling good about it, I am sure I will be able to convince myself of all the reasons why I shouldn’t write, but as prove by my own experience, the writer heart will come back, and I will feel bad of all the opportunities that I had waste and I could have spent writing.
I love the fact that Daniel call it a decease based on Max Hastings books ‘The Korean War‘ and need to agree, is a terrible decease that fill you with fear, doubt, and make you feel really bad, but more importantly, kill your soul, take away your ability to appreciate life, to contemplate the little things, to enjoy a good sad afternoon, to express a happy night, or an incredible morning. If you stop writing, you stop noticing the stuff that your writer heart look around, and you will be loosing those precious moments, those moments, where your words can inspire a tear from someone else, the moments that your writer heart simply blow you and others away.

There are times that we feel as is inspiration simply has left us behind, when we feel that there is no hope at the end of the tunnel and even if we try to move forward there is no sense to move ourselves forward, is like we had lost the oxygen in our brains, the blood in our bodies, the inspiration in our heart.
I know no one that reads this post, has ever suffer from that, people that come and visit us here are people that are highly productive, had fun, and always inspired, but you know that people and I know them too.
We can get into the realms of depression, and in many cases is simply depression, but in many others more than depression is a sense of overwhelm that didn’t allow you to see clear what comes next, how to move forward, but more importantly how to get out. The problem with time management is that will help you make a hole faster and more efficient, but how do you know you are making that hole in the right place, as Stephen Covey will put it, how do you know that your ladder is the correct wall?
We all make choices that we are aware that we need to live with them for a while, some are better than others, some force our heart into feel that lacks of inspiration. How can you continue moving forward when you feel that there is no inspiration? How you wake up and push for something new when you feel there is no hope? You create the hope, you look forward and look for a new start to look, a new goal, a new road.
It gets hard to push when you feel no more energy is left, it feel hard to push when you have lost any hope, but that is the moment.
There is no darker moment that the moment before dawn, and there is no time that looks like it is going to be impossible to reach a goal and make a dream true, than when you are really close. That is the moment the Tunnel will get darker, you will not see the light, but is there… That is also the moment, you will find all that people that quit before seeing the light, look for your inspiration, push hard, the sunrise is close.

People that know me think that I am extremely disciplined, here is the truth, I am not. I am a mess, I just had ben lucky enough to learn about rules, and set rules for myself, that has allow me over time to move forward.
Long time ago, I create a Checklist that was called “The Rules of MY game” The idea of this list, was to define the rules of a game I could win, the game of life. Life defined in my own terms. Over time, I also create 2 more lists, the “AUGUSTO’S DO NOT DO LIST”
When I begin with the “The Rules of MY game” list the objective was to be able to define a game that I could win, I was a mess, I actually continue being a mess, I am just a controlled mess, because I have set rules that allow me to be a controlled mess.
This is the current version of my list:

The Rules of MY Game

• I operate in a highly productive and efficient way.
• I am respectfully nice.
• Silence means I’m OK with what’s going on.
• I practice what I preach.
• I bring joyful engagement to my work and my live (aka I have fun!)
• I focus my energy where it produces the most value.
• I am not a fire-killer. I am a prevention specialist. I do not manage problems; I work on system-improvements and system-maintenance in order to prevent the problems from happening in the first place
• Problems are gifts that inspire me to action. A problem prompts the act of creating or improving a system or procedure.
• I use a personal organizing system that is always at hand. I prioritize, schedule and document. The system is always up-to-date and I use it all the time
• My environment is spotless: Clean and ordered, simple, efficient, functional.
• I am deadline-obsessed. If someone says they will finish a task or a project by a certain date and time, then that person is committed to a deadline. I honor the deadlines I made, and respect them.
• I study to increase my skills. A steady diet of reading and contemplation is vital to my personal development.
• “Complete” means complete. “Almost” or “Tomorrow” is not “complete”
• I spend one hour, at least four times a week, Creating Extraordinary Work. Extraordinary Work, is work that will matter in 10 years.
• I don’t use the iPad on the Desk at work, the iPad is a mobile tool, not a tool to work at your desk. Writing on Evernote, doesn’t count as work for the effects of this rule
• I don’t do data entry on the iPad, unless is super light or I am traveling, otherwise I use the Mac

Have you ever consider on setting rules for your Own Game, or you play by others set of Rules. Have you ever consider that is easier to win a game you can define?

I am a fire prevention specialist. I got that title, when I learn that was easy to prevent fire than try to extinguish it.
The last weeks had been insane, the amount of things to do are honestly overwhelming, I know we all ave more things to do than what we can do in a lifetime, but when everything looks like is coming fast, and at the same time, you need to choose, what you are going to do. I had discover, that check priorities, deadlines and things to do is the best way to prevent fire for happening.
I have like a lot of people I know, too many responsibilities, the ones that are impose and the ones I create in my goals and objectives.
When things get crazy, you should slow down, and make sure you are spending the right time on the right stuff, otherwise, all that you are going to do is drive yourself crazy; and that include time to recharge, if you can’t recharge you can move as fast as you need later on.
I have learn, that when things got crazy, you need to stop, and recheck your priorities, and somedays this happen more than once a day. This is were a system can help you. I am a GTDer and have a system that has mature over the years, for the three days I have been doing some king of weekly review three times a day, because there is too much, that is the only way I know I have to keep things in track.  The reason this work, is because it help me prevent fires and emergencies, even that has been absolutely insane, I had move forward, and had accomplished a series of important stuff.
Making all this checking, and reviews, allow me to make sure that I am spending the time in the right stuff, when things are this insane, I can trust nothing but the system I had.
So three times a day I check my lists, empty my inbox, and focus on the next. I make sure that I take time to recharge, including new in my routine, exercise at 5:10am before the day start, keeping my extraordinary hour, making sure I don’t have lunch in my desk, but use that time to do another review, read well, review not work, and one before I am leaving home, making sure that I will have time to work more, and recharge.
All this steps, allow me to keep me sane, allow me to keep the fires to get really big, allow me to be a Fire Prevention Specialist. How do you prevent fires in your life?