A New Year, An Uncoiled Me!

Happy New Year!  Let me say the New Year has started off with a bang (some awesome fireworks at Broadbeach last night) and me already speaking my mind to my husband!  This year I am looking at a change for Inspire, Motivate, Create, Achieve in conjunction with Lifescrap365.  As you may (or may not) know last year, my friend Mel and I together started a project called Lifescrap365.  It consisted of us recording our year with snapshots of our life and recording it through two very different scrapbooks.  I also utilised this blog as well as our other blog (http://Lifescrap365.blogspot.com/) to record my journey and ideas. 
This year, in keeping with the idea of Lifescrap365, I am setting out to discover the best version of me.  To record this journey, my intention is to take a photo each and every day of me.  Sometimes it might be accompanied by words, sometimes not.  I won't always look my best (I'm sure I will for a while until I get used to the idea of sharing a photo of me with the whole world!), in fact sometimes I'm sure I will look far from it.  The idea is to record the journey of me this year; and whatever that brings with it.  So you will see me at my best and I'm sure at my worst (although for your sake I will try to keep that to a minimum so as not to scar you for life!)
I thought this year my visionboard will be different as well.  Instead of putting up things I want to achieve (goals), my visionboard is going to more about discovering the unknown (not sure how that will look yet; let's just say I'm working on it).  It will be interesting to see in December 2011, which looks so far away from now, what my journey looks like for the year.
Let me tell you a little bit about how this all came about.  In August, Mel gave me a challenge that she thought 9 photos a month was not enough so she thought I should do more.  I rose to the challenge and posted a photo every day.  By the time September rolled around, I actually missed posting every day.  So I knew in 2011 I wanted to do something along those lines; a photo every day digitally.  Then I was thinking about how my goals for 2010, by the power of the law of attraction (or whatever powers you want to call it) actually affected my whole family and perhaps put me in a situation I could have done without even though I had some amazing learnings and connections that came from that situation.  It also had me questionning my ability to walk the talk on peace and calm.  So I wanted to bring it back to being more about me, and my reactions to life.  And so I bravely told Mel I planned to photograph myself everyday-not 'doing' different things, just a simple headshot.  Almost, if possible, in the same position/location every day.  I figured this will allow for comparison of physical appearance and a look into the 'windows of the soul' rather than me just bragging about where I've been and what I've been 'doing'.  I don't really think this year's journey will be about where I've been or what I've been doing, I get the feeling it's going to be a bit more about what's going on inside my head (and whether or not I'm game to share it). 
As it so happens, my sister (not knowing about all the other things I had planned for the year) gave me a great diary called 'Mind, Body & Spirit Book of Days' (and will here on in be known as Book of Days or BOD).  The first paragraph of the diary says to toss out the tired old "New Year, New You' makeover plan and uncoil what's inside as you already have everything you need  for a year of passionate self-discovery.  I'm thinking this sounds like it's all aligning in my universe!  **Goosebumps**  The diary gives practical projects and quizes to help in your uncoiling each and every month.  This will be what I use as a guide to share with you my journey.  Today I am working on the Passion Quiz so that I might be able to build my visionboard.  In my journal I am answering questions like "I'm proudest of.....I most value....My ideal day is....My greatest strengths are.....etc."  It has certainly go me thinking.  And when I get out of my pyjamas I will share with you my first photo of the year. 

Friends

I struggled which blog to post this to.  I guess in the end it doesn't really matter.  I was chatting with Mel yesterday.  We were both talking about our current challenges in regard to sounding like a fishwife when things aren't going how we would like them to go in any given circumstance when children are involved.

I don't yell and scream too loud (although I do welcome winter as the neighbors and our windows are closed mostly so they don't hear the ranting!) and mostly I am pretty calm and I like to look for the positives.  When I go off though, it's like there isn't an off button and I will go on for some time (some might say hours...) about what 'should' have been done or what is missing and how it could be fixed.  So much to the point yesterday where I even took to the road in this state and ended up cursing at the roadworks and the petrol bowser and my husband and lots of other things (the old addage about 10% is about what happens to you and 90% is about how you react to it comes to mind now).

Mel reminded me (in her ever so gently way) that a great way to express yourself when one of these situations arises (or attacks happen depending on who you are) is to express your feelings by saying "When you do this, I feel........."  Mel gave the example of when the kids are dawdling and you are in a hurry you can say "When you dawdle, I feel like you are wasting my time and that makes me cranky."

I thanked Mel for sharing and told her I was going to post it on my blog because maybe others could do with a reminder as well with it being school holidays and all.  I used to use this way to express my feelings when I worked in the corporate world.  Living a cruisy (is that a word) life gets you out of practice and I guess my son is really a very pliable and well behaved child and that keeps me out of practice as well.  So it was timely for me to receive this remind from Mel.

So I made a list (mostly for me but I'm happy to share) of things I can do instead of acting like a fishwife next time things aren't going my way with my son:
* Take a deep breath
* Walk away
* Phone the person/place where you are going to be going and let them know you will be running late
* Ask myself 'Does it really matter if the dvd's aren't back at the store on time?' Ha ha
* Sit in the car and wait
* Take a deep breath or two
* Try to be in the present instead of thinking all those things I think which make me cranky
* Go out into the back yard and scream (what will the neighbors think then?)
* Take two or three deep breaths
* Bury my head in a pillow and let it all out
* Bury my head in my hands and sigh

Is this the new normal?

Ok so issues, I've had a few this year. The latest, a huge water leak under our beautiful stone path that has already netted us a $350 excess water bill plus a $100 leak detector bill. Also today they say they want to test my boy for Celiac's disease. Anyway, I was feeling a bit slack about not doing a newsletter for my e-newsletter clients (there goes the mind again) and I sat down and wrote my latest newsletter. This year, I have been putting things off until my boy is better and I keep saying to myself, "I'll do that when things get back to normal". Then today, in the thinking behind the writing, I thought to myself "What if this is the new normal?". Last year was pretty easy for me. Cruisey, some might say. What if this is going to be my normal for sometime, until I get a new normal, whatever THAT might be? I have to start to adapt to my new normal. Instead of putting things off, I need to work out how I'm going to do what I want and need to do with this new normal.  So over the Easter break, my aim is to make a list of the things I have been putting off and also make a list of action I can take to make sure those things are done.  And maybe I'll put a rough time limit around them to so that I have an aim as to when I would like to have completed them by.  Mmmm, I'm excited at the prospect now of this being my new normal.  It's always nice to have a change and a positive challenge!

Life's Challenges

I thought I would take the opportunity to let you know, the next time I post to my blog will probably be in a week or so, depending on what happens over the next few days.  My boy is hopefully going into hospital on Tuesday for a procedure to help to heal him and get him back to school.  He has been away from school for this whole year, so far. 
I'm not sure if you have had to prepare for something like this as a parent or caregiver.  Today has been making sure the washing is up to date, ironing everyone's clothes, cleaning a few areas of the house to make sure things will be clean for those still here whilst you are away, writing a grocery list so tomorrow I can get the items on the list, making sure there are fresh fruit and vegies in the house etc.  Actually, it's a little like going on a holiday (which is the positive spin we are putting on it).
While I'm standing there doing the ironing, I got to thinking (clearly not living in the present at that moment in time) that yet again, I have been motivated to taking a step towards one of my goals without even realising it.  Motivated by some might say external pressures, if there is such a thing.  I guess I could have only ironed what I needed (the ironing would still be there for me when I get home) or I could have left the floors and bathrooms dirty (they would have also been there ready for me when I get home).  The fact of the matter is I took the opportunity and motivation to get those jobs done.  One of my friends always say "If you want something done, give it to a busy person".  And I find it's true.  If I'm busy, I can achieve far more than if I am idle and have plenty of time to kill.  While I was on the roll, I also took the opportunity to say hello to you and keep you in the loop so you're not wondering why I haven't posted in a while.
Are you like that?  Do you find you get more done when you are busy?  Does that work against you?(often people know you are busy and they also know this saying and they will give things to you because they know you won't say no).  How does it help you achieve your goals?
Well, have a great week.  I know I will definitely have to live in the moment this week to keep the anxiety low and to be strong and calm.  I'll keep you posted on how it went.

It was a challenge

You know, since I set my goals in the first week of January, I have found it challenging to do any action towards one.  And it's an easy one(well now I can say that!).  I have made a dvd which only runs for 5 minutes.  It has inspirational pictures and affirmations and the idea behind it is if you watch it every day for so many days (can't remember how many) then the affirmations will integrate in your life.  You know instead of you saying to yourself 'Gee I really need to paint those walls" (as an example), you can repeat your affirmation "I have the perfect living space".
Anyway, I just couldn't put this goal into practice.  I was watching it every morning near the end of last year and with holidays, it seemed to go out the window(sometimes understandably when I had no way to watch it). 
Well, I am proud to say, I have managed to watch it this morning.  It already seems a little bit easier for me to be able to watch it tomorrow, and the next morning, and so on.  I had to work out the easiest way to incorporate it into my day.  I have put it with my computer so when I turn it on every day it is there to remind me it would be great if I watched it. 
Do you have a goal you haven't been able to make a start on?  What could you do to make this goal easier to crack?