Tag Archives: motivation

The Ups and Downs Of Monthly Themes

Posted on by
11

Life has felt very full for the last year so I recently have begun setting a theme for each month and building some goals around that theme. The idea is to focus on a few related projects and actually get something done rather than have a long to-do list with little actually finished.

It started in August when the theme was built around whether or not to keep or trade in my old car. After weighing the evidence, I ultimately traded in the nerdmobile and have been happily zipping around, living with that decision in a new car I’m calling White Lightning.

The September theme has been far more complex as it has dealt with getting my health in order. The most important part of this has been some doctor appointments as well as researching what a new and improved anti inflammatory diet needs to look like. My sluggish thyroid is chugging along with help from a prescription medicine but I think a holistic approach to health and wellness will be the only route to actually feeling good since I’m feeling cruddy even though the labs are fine. 

The thyroid is a notorious pain to adjust. I know people who say they have felt great for twenty years and others who say they’ve spent twenty years struggling with exhaustion and weight gain. These last three years have been pretty awful and I hope to not continue struggling forever. 

Despite my best laid plans for a road to better health, I managed to pick up bronchitis somewhere along the way. I wrote this missive from what feels like my death bed even though I’m sure the sack full of medicine I brought home will pull me out of it soon. 

I tell you all of this, not for pity, but to use myself as an example. 

An example of what, I’m not yet sure! Ha! 

We plan and work so hard to do the right thing, to take care of ourselves and to accomplish our goals but there are times that it feels like we just can’t get ahead. It sucks, it really does.

But imagine how bad things would be if we didn’t try at all. We must keep trying to do what’s right and to fight the good fight. 

The bronchitis will pass. The body aches will be a memory in a few days. This discouraging period will build character and make me better appreciate the good days.

In a two hour span yesterday I was diagnosed with bronchitis, hit a squirrel, ran my new white car through fresh tar (for about the 39th time in a month) and had such a coughing fit in the local grocery store, I had to leave without the oranges I needed. This was particularly demoralizing as everyone in the store and people in the parking lot turned to stare.

And then, at some point I looked in the mirror to notice a little patch of something that looked like dried blood at the corner of my mouth. It was not blood. It was a little bit of dried blueberry juice from the pancake I had for breakfast. How many people did I see before noticing this? I really don’t know.

For the mishaps, there were good things too. My parents picked up my oranges. My boss told me to take care and get some rest. A woman at the doctors’ office recognized how bad I felt and had me go first in line to check out. I don’t know who she was but I was beyond grateful. Plus, I got to sleep away the afternoon in a cozy bed. 

See? Things aren’t so bad. I’ll be better again soon and back to adventuring and unlocking the mysteries of my thyroid. And someday, I’ll be brave enough to return to the grocery store where I made such a scene!! Meanwhile, I’ll check the mirror before going out in public after eating blueberry pancakes! 

By the way, next month’s goal will revolve around Autumn activities – both adventures and work around the yard! Stay tuned!

Word Of The Year: Rejuvinate

Posted on by
13

If you were to choose a word to represent your values and intentions for the next twelve months, what would it be? 


It’s a growing movement, this idea that a word can be used to guide decisions and inform the way we live our lives. For scrapbookers, life coaches and others who mean to document life or live with greater intention, it’s a tool and something to explore for personal growth and wellness.

I have been thinking about this in the context of my goals, weaknesses and demands for myself  in 2024. It seems that a Word of the Year would be a fun way to keep me on track. 

Most people don’t think about their habits nearly as much as I do but I have this weird Puritanical worldview when it comes to work ethic and self improvement that causes me to think about this stuff frequently. 

After all, humans are the sum of their own habits. If your habit is to cook a nutritious meal after an hour at the gym, you’re likely to be a healthier person than most of us. If you are an impulse spender who shops for entertainment, you’re likely to have some money troubles. 

I used to have good habits. I used to eat a strict diet that made me feel healthy and strong. I used to drink three glasses of water every morning as soon as I got out of bed. Until the time change this fall, I was hiking a couple of times a week. Commitment to habits can ebb and flow with seasons and health. I know what habits make my life better but sticking to them can be a challenge. 

I suspect this is true for most people. 

January marks a new season in my life every year. This is when I start a big project at work and when I do my No Spend Challenge. If you’re not familiar, I have written about it here before and will talk about it again in the next few days. It’s colder and I am perfectly happy to go out in the cold for a nice hike and then come home to get cozy rather than run around a lot as I typically do in warm weather. 

In other words, late December is when I reach out and hit that big ole’ Reset Button and start again for a new year. Life becomes slow and it’s pretty good too. 

Keeping in mind that I have some habits collecting dust like those old home movies in your attic, I’m not really starting over. I’m just dusting them off and carting them into the living room where I can see them. 

So my word of the year is REJUVINATE.

I like this word because it can be applied to most anything. 

I can rejuvenate my good eating habits, my commitment to financial fitness, my devotion to hobbies and even my reading routines. I can rejuvinate my interest in work and in journaling or keeping my home tidy. Some of these habits even work together making rejuvenating habits a big picture, full circle activity. 

When faced with a decision, I will use this word as a kind of yardstick. Does this decision aid my desire to rejuvenate something important to me? 

Clearly, we don’t have the luxury of only doing the things we wish to do. Sometimes we have to do work we don’t like or attend a meeting set around someone else’s schedule. As grown ups, the expectation is that we will do what the rest of the world wants us to do. Let me tell you, the rest of the world will fill up every bit of your time if you let it and that’s not necessarily in your best interest.

REJUVINATE. If you play Scrabble, you’ll know it’s worth twenty points. If you know your Latin, you know that “re” means again and that “juvenis” means young. The word literally means “to make young again.” The online Oxford English Dictionary is pretty helpful in understanding word origins. 

I don’t wish to reinvent the wheel. I mainly want to return to some good habits, to rejuvenate my commitment to things that serve me instead of living a life where my role is to serve everyone else and to just allow things to happen to me rather than fully live my life. 

The more I think about it, the more certain I am rejuvenating habits is a good use of my time right now.

Now that you’ve had time to think about it, tell me in the comments a word you think would make a great Word of the Year for you!

January Goal List

Posted on by
4

Each month I sit down and make a list of goals for the next thirty days. It’s usually seven to ten things ranging from easy to nearly unattainable and a few are even fun.

For example, January’s list included my reading goal (fun), packing up the Christmas decorations from the back porch (easy) and taming my craft room into something both presentable and functional (not in a million years).

I unearthed the January list on February 7, while cleaning out my work bag. That was the same day I realized that I hadn’t accomplished a darn thing out of the ten goals except my reading goal. I would like to say that I don’t know how I spent my time in January but it clearly involved books.

What’s worse is that I didn’t even try. I didn’t even look at the list or know where it was.

I also realized I was a week into a new month and hadn’t even thought to set new goals.

Some of that stuff got transferred to the February list. My current goal is to pack up the porch Christmas and put it away by Saturday. Note that it’s now Friday and still not done. Never fear, there’s time.

There was a time I was organized, energetic and motivated. I had lists to keep track of all my lists and getting things done wasn’t really a problem. The last few years have more or less beaten that out of me. My thyroid has left me tired, my brain in a fog and my attention span short. Whatever energy exists within me gets allocated to my workday right now. I mostly keep with with this blog, look after the cat and try to do whatever else I can.

For the last few nights I have been playing beat the clock. Last night I set a timer for fifteen minutes and did a quick clean of the kitchen. When it went off, I hit repeat and kept going. Once I was satisfied with that room, I repeated the process in my craft room and actually made some progress.

You can do anything for fifteen minutes. The trick is continuing when the alarm buzzes. The vitamin commercial tells us that a body in motion stays in motion and that is absolutely true. Getting started is the hard part but, once you do, it’s relatively easy to keep going.

If you don’t like the idea of alarms, try saying you have to stay busy during a podcast or a favorite album. Just set some parameters to signal that your job isn’t done until there’s an alarm or the end of an episode.

Tonight’s plan is to not sit down after work. Instead, I would like to tackle some of those goals and maybe a little regular cleaning – working in fifteen minute intervals, of course!

Monday Pep Talk

Posted on by
Reply

Good morning! It’s Monday. Let’s attack this day like a giant gorilla on the side of the King Kone in Cassadaga, New York.

If you hit snooze on Monday morning you’re setting a tone of procrastination for the day and the entire rest of the week. If you hop up and get your day started, you’ll find you have a much better experience.

And in case you aren’t sure, this is the pep talk I need to read this morning. Hopefully it helps you too!