It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time

Winston Churchill – February 1945

My mind is constantly cluttered with dozens of things at a time. They are always playing off in the background of my mind. Sometimes it like going to bed at night and waking up with the solution in the morning. But, thankfully, I usually manage to be able to focus primarily on one thing at a time. When I do that I can spend hours doing something and it only seems like minutes. That almost total focus is one of the gifts that my Autism gives me.

On the other side, dreaming is sometimes an asset, but also can be a liability. It is important to have dreams, but if they are not put into actions with distinct plans they are for the most part useless drivel. As the Churchill quote above indicates it is probably better to have a spreadsheet of actionable items that can be achieved one at a time, than to just aimlessly dream.

I’m not sure what Churchill’s circumstances were when he make this statement. World War II ended seven months later, so that might have had something to do with it. But, to me this quote could apply to many situations.

I don’t think my thoughts or actions have anything to do with destiny, and I do enjoy my dreams of the future. So I won’t try to stifle them. Even though I am in my 79th year of life, I still dream that I am a thirty-something with as much life in front of me as behind. I know that isn’t true but it sure is fun to sometimes think that way.

To finish off this post, I seem to be coming across many quotes from Churchill lately, but have never known much about him. Maybe I need to do something about that.