Summer Self-Care Series #4:
Honoring the schedule.
I have a 16-month old, a husband, a job, an acre, and a business. I also have friends I love to see and restaurants I like to go to – not to mention trips I like to take and shows I enjoy watching.
I’m a busy gal. AND…
There is room for all of this in my life and in my calendar.
The busy is the struggle. The not committing to my calendar and what I planned is the struggle. The constantly reacting versus being proactive is the struggle.
I GET the struggle. I am mired in it, and I want out.
The problem is, the thing between where I am now and the end of the struggle (That land over there, where I don’t have to react to every email that comes in, the moment it comes in, because I know I have time built in to each work day specifically to address emails…) is the land of adult-ing. Again.
Dang it!
To get what I want I actually have to start living it now. Everyday. Like I mean it. Then keep living it. Everyday, even when I don’t want to. To give up the struggle sucks, and then it is freedom.
So here’s what I propose: Put your to do list into your calendar. Throw away that to do list. Then, do what you said you’d do.
Your brain will tell you not to.
You will be too tired, too hungry, too busy, too important… Just like everybody else.
That’s why you need to know your “why.” Why would you do this terribly unsatisfying task in the first place? Why would you want to get to a place where you have to look at a calendar to tell you want to do? Why would you want to outsource all of your scheduling decisions to your planner brain rather than live in the moment?
For me, living in the moment is a near-dead idea that I find in quick snippets throughout my week. There are so many moments out in the future to care for, that the one I am in right now is seldom uninterrupted, seldom free. Freedom is my “why.” Always.
So what if I could plan in advance and take care of as many of those future moments as possible – and then be done thinking about them until I bump in to them again on the calendar (where they waited patiently for me to arrive). Then in that moment, no matter what I was happily engaged in. I did what I said I would do. I was trustworthy with and honored my commitment for that moment.
That would change everything. That is what I’ve done with food. Now, it’s time to conquer the schedule. Why do I do all this? Because I want to enjoy my weekends without distraction. I want to own my moments. I want to BE in them – not buffered from them.
THAT is freedom to me. What is freedom to you?
BIG love,
Caryn
…but “Aren’t I a free spirit?!” Yes! You are. And you can do even more free-spiriting in the free time you have planned where you don’t have to feel guilty about all the things you’re not doing. Don’t take my word for it. Try it. Then tell me what you think.