I am having trouble achieving inner peace. Every week seems crazier than the last, even though I promise myself “next week will be better.” Don’t get me wrong: I am enjoying life and I am happy. In fact, I am lucky to have a full life with lots of people in it and I am extremely lucky to be getting a real shot at creating the company I founded years ago.

But I’m not peaceful. I am pretty much the antithesis to peace. Every day is a race to get as much done as possible, and even the weekends are crammed full of events, experiences, and tasks. I do it to myself and I don’t know how to stop it.

I have been planning to attend the third annual Star MegaDo Event for several months, as UsingMiles.com is a main sponsor of the event. I was excited for the event, but for me it was almost just another thing to check off the list and another place I was “going” this week – just like I went somewhere last week and the week before. I was pushing the envelope to get a contest in place for the event, so yesterday afternoon was spent waiting for t-shirts to be delivered (thankfully they made it) and rushing out of work early to pick up postcards that were rush-ordered last week. In the midst of all the madness that is my life, I forgot to consider whether or not I was prepared to take this trip, and apparently I wasn’t. I remembered only after I had left work that my passport was in my desk, and then I vaguely recalled that it might also be expired. Um, this trip stops in Canada, right? Uh oh. After coordinating a passport pickup with a co-worker, I started researching whether or not a passport/birth certificate/ social security card would suffice for entry/exit to Canada. Apparently I am ok getting into Canada, but not getting back into the U.S.

Suffice to say, I was and am disappointed. I am now in Chicago to attend the first half of the conference, but I won’t be able to actually board the MegaDo charter plane and travel to Montreal because there is a pretty good chance that I would get stuck in Canada.

Moral of the story? I need to slow down a bit. I need to find peace. I am an avid reader of Zen Habits and Leo is always encouraging his readers to simplify, simplify, simplify. I don’t know how to simplify!

He tells us not to have to-do lists.

How will I get anything done?

He says to prioritize getting one to two things done a day – things you really want to do – and the rest is gravy.

I can’t be content with getting one-two things done. And I MUST do things I don’t want to do otherwise nobody will do them.

He is goal-free; meaning, he doesn’t set goals. He just takes life one day at a time and does what makes him happy that day. He’s also gotten rid of everything material in his life: his books, his stuff, his clothes, etc.

I think about some of the things I could get rid of and the ways I could simplify my life, and I mentally start SETTING GOALS for simplification, before realizing that I am already making things more complicated within my simplifying!

So I’ve decided that I am just going to try to slow down. I am not going to insist on filling my weekends with activities, even if I know they will be fun or useful. I am going to set time aside to just enjoy being present and enjoy not having a schedule to adhere to. As for my work schedule, I am going to try to be more thorough on the things I do take on, and start saying ‘no’ to the things I just don’t have the capacity to handle. I can’t make each meeting, conference, presentation, and still have the time to respond to email, manage my own priorities, and push things to closure effectively. I need to do more with less in every aspect of my life.

But for now, I’m keeping my to-do list.