On setting things aside

“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.” — David Allen

I’m always swinging between wanting to have nothing pinning me down, and longing for a pin; between wanting a grand and busy life, and a simple one; between indulging in various guilty pleasures and restricting them. 

The paradox of figuring out what we want is that sometimes our desires are in direct conflict. Yet when faced with duelling desires, Albert Camus reminds us: “You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetic justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.” 

In order to simply experience ourselves, we must acknowledge the futile nature of trying to do it all and learn which things to set aside. Simple enough as in instruction. Yet in application, there can still be a tension because it feels like we are doing the right thing by trying to do it all. But here we can remain stuck.

Instead of thinking about all these things we don’t have, can’t do or won’t be for some time, we can place them in our mind’s cloakroom in order to focus on what we have rig…