Peace with deadlines

I did it! Last weekend, I finished my sixth spiritual adventure novel, sent it to my editor, and he started sending me suggestions immediately. We have a meeting scheduled for Monday, so I needed time to consider and make the changes. Well, I did it! Finished about an hour ago and does it feel great.

It got me thinking about deadlines and how so many of them are self-imposed, stressful, and really unnecessary.

Deadline is a word with a dismaying etymology. It comes from prison guards drawing a line in the dirt. If a prisoner stepped over that line, instant death was theirs. Yikes! Are you sure you want deadlines in your life? Not me.

In order to make peace with commitments Iï¿½ve made related to time, Iï¿½ve upgraded those agreements to timelines, not deadlines. The thing about timelines is that they feel to me like they can be revised, renegotiated, adapted vis-ï¿½-vis deadlines which feel . . . well, deadly. Time, that fickle mistress, is elastic and it will work with us if we will work with it.

How real are your deadlines, dear one? Really real? Or are they really flexible?

Allowing time to be elastic and to support us is a choice we can make for peace.