But first, Storytime! You may not be keeping up with western WA news, but we’ve had some extreme rain (7+ inches locally in 24 hours) and that has resulted in flooding and — as currently impacting me — landslides! I’m safe and so is my house, but I am stranded on the other side of two major landslides (in the towns of Hoquiam and Aberdeen) from my own home. Sunday evening, my mom and I came to her house in Ocean Shores, WA to meet a repairman scheduled for Monday morning. We came during some rain… rain is pretty normal here, ya know? Didn’t double check for any possible weather-related issues. I think we should have! Overnight, serious things happened and now our typical 2-ish hour trip might turn into a 6+ hour detour if that route even stays open in the coming days.
All this to say — I had a choice of no pictures or recycled pictures for this post LOL Forgive me?
On Thursday, Sam posted New Year – New Start! Today I am saying, New Year – second try at old goals!
I’ve chosen a word for the year. It is “Do.”
That’s the shortest and sweetest and most precise word to define my actual wish, dream, vision, and goal for 2015.
Do.
How best to explain my hopes for “Do” as a guideword … it means balancing the scale between my good books and computer (sitting still, thinking, learning) with more of the other moving, making, practicing, DOing!
I am not lazy, I sometimes just have too much intertia ;)
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Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion, including changes to its speed and direction.
So, you know, if you’re velocity is zero… LOL
Last year, my NY resolution was “Just Make Stuff.” In general, that was a total failure. Ack! I didn’t Do or Make much Stuff.
(I really really REALLY liked the days I spend Doing Stuff with Abbi :) Having a tiny human in my life again is awesome! So looking forward to another little snuggler when the Jelly Bean arrives in April. Thanks, Samantha and Aaron!) And also for the borrow of the photo below, Sam LOL
Do.
DO sit at the sewing machine! DO get messy at the art table! DO have fun in the kitchen making delicious (and mostly healthy) yummies! DO get some photos onto pages so they can be shared and enjoyed! DO pay more attention to my home and garden! DO go for walks.
DO get stuff crossed off my project list!
DO more!
DO try to meet last year’s resolution of “Just Make Stuff.”
How?
It’s always best to break big goals down into small goals, right? So I’mbreaking down my year’s goal into a day-by-day goal: DO more each day. Even each hour!
Here are the techniques I know work for me:
1. Set a timer to limit the not-doing activities.
2. Block out a period of time to work on DOing during a day.
3. Schedule DOing with a buddy.
4. Make sure that meals, chores, and errands are prepped and planned rather than hoping they’ll mysteriously get done.
Another concept to help me DO more this year has dawned on me over the past few months! I really want to share it because maybe it will help someone else — maybe YOU! That’s exactly what helped me figure this out, was someone else talking about her own epiphany. It seems pretty obvious, but when you have that ADD mindset about creative activities like I do, and a project list that spans a couple of pages, it is not at all obvious!
Here’s the concept: you really truly cannot do it all. You can think up and plan for, buy for, wish for as many creative endeavors as you want — go ahead and sketch them out, put them on project lists, whatever you need to do but don’t let them freeze you into not being able to choose.
PICK THE PROJECT YOU MOST WANT TO DO, then JUMP IN AND DO IT. Just pick one.
Don’t be worrying about the other awesome potential projects on your list and in your imagination being neglected, becauseat least now this one project is not being neglected.
Do you get that? Do you really get that?
It doesn’t matter what you work on, which project you choose, because at least SOMETHING is getting done, being made, being enjoyed. You might as well pick the one calling your name the loudest right now.
OK, seems obvious! Don’t all epiphanies, no matter how slowly they come clear to you, seem obvious afterwards?
I feel like I used to understand this and I feel like other people know this instinctively — that you can’t actually do every single creative project that comes into your imagination. But honestly, not all other people know this instinctively because I’ve met many on the internet that face this very dilemma. I happen to be one of those lately. “Lately” stops now! As in, this very minute I am typing these words. This moment begins my new year.
Don’t just read and imagine things from these books…
Do.
And if you have a jammie day in front of your computer and forget to make dinner or DO anything else? Just say, “Oh, DOo-DOo!” Because we’re also human. Just don’t let the not-doing habit get established!
Note: there will be more than the obvious benefits to spending less time in front of my computer and other device screens. I’ve been battling insomnia worse and worse the last few years. I have tested for myself the recommendations of limiting the amount of time spent in front of a screen to help with sleep quality. Here’s my conclusion: it makes a difference for me. I realized this quite a few months ago and have not been consistent implementing it. I pay for it — everything’s a trade-off! My DOing will hopefully be an upward spiral into less screen time = better/more sleep = more energy/less aches and pains = more DOing :) Happy me all around!
Let’s DO this!
Gail
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