Image courtesy of nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
OK, the month of January has been a real slog for me. It’s not that I haven’t gotten anything done. I have, and some people might even say it was a lot. But I’m not going to make a list. I’m not looking for people to reassure me that I’ve done enough. I’m not looking for someone to tell me it’s ok that I didn’t do as much as usual, that it’s enough, etc. I’m not hoping for someone to make me feel better about it or for some kind of cop-out. I’m simply acknowledging that January was less than I wanted it to be, and that I want February to be different.
I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, but I did put together some preliminary notes about a few activities I want to experience in 2014. I just didn’t write the post yet. And here it is February.
So while there were things I wanted to do in January, I often sidestepped those items and took the easy way out. One of the things I did when my motivation was low was to clear out some of my blog comments and similar things in my email. Just this morning, I ran across a post from the first of November, New Month Resolutions. Randee talked about how posting every day in October had been easier than she expected it to be and that it might work to set up a goal or two for the new month. Well, she set up three. And in the comments, Yours Truly also commented that she had launched three activities for November (and December). Here is what I wrote at the time.
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I joined a quilt-along to FINALLY work on the quilt I’ve been “thinking” about for my daughter for the last six years.
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I joined Curves to start working out 3 times a week, and
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I made an intention to finish the work on one of my textbook projects this month.
I knew I had written three things in the comment section of that post, but when I opened the post this morning, I didn’t remember what the three things were or if I had actually followed through. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had significant progress on these three items.
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the quilt top for my daughter’s quilt is nearly finished (upcoming post will have pictures)
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I am in my third month of Curves, and have accomplished 3 times a week most of the time (a record far better than any other attempt at regular exercise EVER.
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One textbook went to press, and I made some progress on the next one.
WOW!
So I thought to myself, “It’s February 1. Set some new intentions! Put them out there. It’s a short month. Don’t worry if they’re ‘the best’ ones. Just get something going! Get the wheels turning! Stock up on exclamation points.”
So here goes! While there are many things that have deadlines and will occur naturally, these are the three things I will focus on in February
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De-clutter my work area, and begin work on my closet.
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Set an intention to do regular writing and follow through with it.
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Continue to make progress on my quilting projects.
It’s too early to tell if this will jump-start my motivation, but I have a focus now instead of just having all those to-do things bumping around in my head. Now I can settle down and put the others aside as I start my new plan: Focus for February!
471 days to 60
I am also posting this for FanFoFeb. You can check it out here: http://willowdot21.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/fanfofeb-the-lovers/
Container Chronicles 