Seeing yourself walking on multiple time tracks with different timeframes is a characteristic play on the game of life via a 4D chess.
The way I see it is regular chess is played on a flat board where you see all the pieces at once.
In 4D chess, you're playing on multiple boards simultaneously and each one representing a different timeline or timeframe.
One board is your monthly projects, another yearly goals, and yet another one on the long-term career arc. Every move you make ripples across all these boards at once which creates an incredibly complex game where you're constantly managing parallel timelines that all affect each other.
It made me realize that I don't think much compared to just getting work done to keep walking on all of these tracks without much concern or rather any awareness on what's what in terms of how these different timelines align, conflict, and/or compound with each other.
Thinking can be very hard in this context. Multiple timeframes, how one aspect of my life interacts with another, the different variables, change in one influencing the other or spilling out into other aspects that I would prefer being isolated from the rest.
The mental energy this consumes can be too much that I'd rather not think about it unless it has become really important given a structural change of circumstances, for example.
Core problem
As of late, I'm also trying to get back to simplifying this game of life by taking it one step at a time and focusing on only the main task to complete.
The main obstacle I've encountered here is not being able to do linear work in a non-linear world.
I can't remember where it hit me, in terms of when this tension between linear and non-linear became so apparent.
But now it seems everything around me demands simultaneous attention, which is based on the perception that so much is happening real-time.
For one, deadlines overlap across projects and opportunities appear that don't fit neatly into my planned sequence.
I just want to focus on one thing, complete it, then move to the next, but reality keeps pulling me back into that 4D chess game and I have to think across multiple boards at once, even when I'm trying to play on just one.
It simply doesn't work when you're fighting against the nature of the game itself.
On the fly
Another thing is I've spent so much energy recognizing and articulating the problem that I haven't actually given much thought to the other side of the spectrum, as in coming up with potential solutions for it. Which makes sense, since I've not given much thought to the actual problem itself in a deliberate, structured way.
I've been experiencing it, reacting to it, being exhausted by it, but not really sitting down to think it through.
Going with the fly right now, I think I need systems that acknowledge the 4D chess nature of things and then find ways of creating boundaries and priorities within it instead of trying to fight it outright.
What if instead of trying to play on one board at a time, I accept I'm playing on multiple boards but consciously decide which moves matter most on which boards in any given moment? Or how about as solution is designing my life differently so that fewer boards are in play simultaneously?
As of now, I don't have the answers yet. It just struck me that the game has evolved beyond easy mode. Recognizing that I've been stuck in problem-awareness without moving toward solution-exploration feels like a shift worth making for a start.
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Posted Using INLEO