I have my word for the the new year!!

When I started to go through how I wanted to feel and what I wanted to accomplish in 2022 finding my word for the new year wasn’t that hard. Check out working on my word for some background information.

The coming year I want to work full-on on my creativity.  Writing, blogging and other endeavors. To start, finish and push myself. I want to have a novel edited and sent to editors. I want to explore and push myself on the blog. What about offering a creative course? I want to end next year exhausted and excited about what I have accomplished and put out there.

I want to end the year knowing I tried my best. So that lead me to the word “accomplish”. As that is what I want to do the coming year accomplish projects.  I want to feel that I gave it my all. I set a schedule. I focused. I broke my projects down into manageable bits. I didn’t let negativity or perfectionism get in my way.

I sat with the word “accomplish” for a while.  It felt like I was in the vicinity of the word I wanted but not exactly there.  Next stop thesaurus. Words that came up for accomplish were fulfill, achieve, realize and attain. That was it! I found my word.

Realize. I want to realize my ideas. To make them happen or know I did my best. Remember if you try you can never fail. Failure is not trying. Trying and not making the exact mark is not failure but learning. Sorry off topic!!

The word realize will push me to take chances and give me focus. To realize my ideas (decided not to use the word dream). To make this coming year terrific and worthwhile. To realize I have control of my year and what happens is all on me.

Have you decided on a word for the new year? How do you want to feel? What do you want to realize? I would love to start a conversation here and even support each other in what we’re up to next year.

We have this!

Picture our perfect day in five years

I have been listening to Cait Flanders Opting Out Podcast.  One episode was the perfect day in five years.  She gave a list of questions to consider where you want to be in five years. What your perfect day would be.  I thought this might be a good starting point to create some intentions to move us forward.

As we consider the questions of where we want to be in five years we should also consider how to move forward to that perfect day.  What can we set in place now or let go of that moves us forward?  

I’m not going to answer the questions here. I will be journaling about them.  Anything that comes up I should be doing or letting go of I’ll keep you posted.  I hope this gets you thinking what you need or where you might want to be headed.  Please drop me a line. I would love to see what comes up for you.  I’m a good listening and brain-stormer!  Here they are!  Remember this is your perfect day.

1. What time do you get up and how do you feel?
2. Where are you?  Home what does it look like?
3. Who is with you?
4. What kind of work are you doing?
5. How do you look and what are you wearing?
6. How do you get to work?
7. What do you enjoy doing after work – hobbies maybe.
8. What is your evening like?
9. How are you feeling when you go to bed after a good day?
10. What are you grateful for now / today?

As you can see the questions are more open.  Remember this is your perfect day in five years.  Sit with them. Journal them. Maybe put them away for a bit to mull over.  Then we can head back and start to move forward to that perfect day.

PS I’m usually someone who would answer questions realistically.  Just look forward to where I will likely be in five years and do my perfect day from that.  But NOT this time.  This time I am full on imaging what my perfect day could be.  The sky is the limit for this people!!

  

Doing my Project 333

I came across Project 333 and decided to take it on.  This post will give you Project 333 background and my reasons why I’m doing it.  Fast summery three months 33 items of clothing/shoes/accessories to wear.

I wanted to give an update since I’ve been into it almost a month.  To get my 33 items I tossed all my summer clothes on the bed. There were certain items I knew right off wouldn’t make the cut so I put them away. I cleared out a drawer for tops I was wearing for the next three months and another drawer for tops I wasn’t.  That way I wouldn’t be tempted to wear a top when I opened the drawer. No need to access that drawer for three months. It is working.

I need work clothes – not business suits but casual items. Capris and nice tops for the summer. I ended up with 9 bottoms. These include jeans. Remember I need work and play clothes. Also one dress a friend had recently given me that I thought would shake things up a bit.  I picked out 17 tops. Typing that it sounds like a lot and I guess it is if you check out what other people’s 33 items are. I’m not into accessories so I didn’t include scarves, necklaces or bracelets. I walk everywhere so sneakers and a pair of sandals. For purses I have my backpack which I take to work everyday with wallet and lunch. That meant one pursue for the weekend.  Last items were two pairs of earrings. Earrings are the only jewelry I wear everyday. I put all my jewelry away in a box and left out a pair of silver hoops (small) and my fishhook silver fish earrings. These fish earrings I have had forever and have always been my go to summer earrings.

I put my 33 items separate from my others clothes so I just access them. I’m lucky to have a big enough closet for that. It makes it easier not seeing other stuff. A friend at work asked me when I was starting my Project 333 and I said I had already! So she didn’t notice the same clothes (or what I thought was the same clothes) every week.

When my clothes were on my bed I started mixing what tops would work with what bottoms.  Since I have more tops than bottoms I started with bottoms. I laid them out and went to the tops mixing and matching with them. Some items were easy like backpack, sneakers, jeans and a few tops. I don’t feel like I’m missing stuff for the majority of the time.  More on weekends when I want to grab a t-shirt. Yes I have t-shirts in my 33 items, but sometimes I think oh that one.

I don’t mind having less clothes to go through. I pick my clothes out on Sunday for the week so no scrambling in the morning.  I have more than enough clothes so I’m not repeating myself during the week. I mean 17 tops seriously (yes a few are for play) so that is two weeks of work with no repeats.  Can wear jeans on Friday.

I can already see a few of the items I will be donating when my three months are up. Clothes I didn’t wear and didn’t make the cut to even consider being part of my 33.  Also no purchasing of clothes for three months.

My biggest struggle is weekends and tops that didn’t make the cut but I like. But I’m good with that.  They are in the drawer waiting. Some to keep and others definitely into the goodwill bag.

This hasn’t been as hard as I thought when I made the decision to do Project 333.  I recommend checking it out – link in my original post at the top. I will be getting rid of clothes when this is over and can see more closet space. Also knowing my style more and what clothes made the cut and why.

Everyone’s 33 items for 3 months will be different and that is what makes this interesting. I know I have more tops than necessary. Maybe I should have chosen another set of earrings or a bracelet for the summer.

The project (your items) are not set in stone. The author says if you find you need to swap stuff out do it. This shouldn’t feel like a sentence. It is to show us what is important to us and that yeah maybe we have too much stuff.  Less choice can be a good thing, especially if you are looking into a fully packed closet with nothing to wear.

If you have done Project 333 or considering it, I would love to hear your take on it. Along with how you made your choices and what your items were.

Setting an intention

Figuring out our intention is half the fun.  Do we want a feeling or to focus in on a project for the next four month?  

If you want a feeling say joyful or playful write that in the middle of a page.  Around it (or a list) write down everything that gives you that feeling.  Make sure you use all your senses.  Is there a certain smell?  A food?  Activity? This is a brain dump of ideas.  Write down everything – even if you think it can’t be done. No judging or eliminating. It all goes down.

Sit with it for a bit.  You might add more items to your page or not. All okay. We have set our intention to bring more X into our lives. We have four months to focus on this. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and start on your list. What can you start to schedule into your day? If reading brings you joy could you schedule in time at lunch to read? Making a reading hour at home with family (set a timer).  I think it is a good idea to give yourself a bit of a deadline say finish one book a month. Remember be flexible. Life happens.

If you have projects half finished or want to start something new pick one.  Remember to pick the one that excites you the most. Again we have to break this down.  We have four months so schedule time into your day or week to work on your project.  Break it down into pieces you can easily do.

If you want to write a novel break it down into an outline, scenes and character profiles.  Small writing jobs that are important. Also smaller pieces allow us to finish something. To check that box of two scenes written.  Scheduling and breaking down your project are crucial.  

You want to start journaling.  Break it down into 1) purchasing a pretty journal 2) looking for journaling prompts on the internet  3) picking a few out to do.  We gather momentum when we complete tasks. So purchasing a journal is a completed task. Check.

I think the biggest thing is to not set unreal expectations for ourselves. Four months might not be enough time to write a novel.  To go through every closet in the house and organize.  To learn a language. I hope you get the idea.  I’m not saying you can’t get this stuff done but we don’t want to feel overwhelmed.

So we are going to decide if it is a feeling we want to experience or a project we want to finish or start in the next four months.  Next brainstorm ideas of how to go about it.  Creating a schedule, being flexible and giving our self grace if we fall behind.  Re-examine what is happening. Maybe your project is too large – could it be broken down further? 

Remember intentions are determining an action or result. Intentions are organic and we can adjust them as we gather more information.  They are to help focus us on what we want to accomplish in four months (or your time frame).

Here is a download I hope lets you stay on tract.  Let the intentions begin!

my-intentionDownload