Hey there! I'm stopping by after midnight on a Friday night because that's what is exciting to me right now: spending a Friday night with a glass of wine, being introspective.
We're newly returned from our trip to Chicago. It was so good. Adam and I bonded as a couple and saw lots of great friends. We walked til our feet were sore, and bitched at each other. We ate good food and danced to some of our favorite songs at two Phish concerts.
But I only took my phone with me, not my laptop, and it's so good to get home and be able to print off the It's Business Time worksheets, and spend time writing in my office for hours, and be HOME, and not beholden to anyone else or in anyone else's space.
I mentioned last month that I read the book "Essentialism", and that really gelled a lot of stuff in my head that I then thought a lot about, over our trip. The idea behind essentialism is that if you do fewer things, you do them better than if you try to do many things at once. I've always been someone who prided herself on having a big plate full of commitments she was juggling, and thought that that was what made me interesting in other people's eyes. But that way leads to burnout. The more balls you're juggling, the more awkward it is to put them down if you need to. Plus it's just not actually as productive as it could be!
SO. Taking a break from my schedule for the Chicago trip means that I come back to it with fresh eyes, and a fresh resolve to pare things back and make only a few things priority. So I'm looking at the list I laid out last month of some goals, and here are the changes I'd like to make. The original goal is italicized, and the updated YES or NO is in bold.
- Finish all the work for the crowdfunding perks. Date: end of this year. YES: this is priority. I've already sold my time to people, so I need to make good on those promises.
- Get digital photos for the last seven years made into photo books. Delete the digital versions of the photos. Stop worrying about losing them! Date: end of 2015. NO: no longer a priority.
- Put a couple of older posts from Dream Big Cape Breton onto “goCapeBreton.com” — maybe a beaches post, the post about the transportation system. NO: no longer a priority.
- Launch and then run a successful first year of the Creative Soul Weekend, with Emily Chafe. YES. This is important to me.
- Launch my business (October!!! Watch out world!) YES. On track with this, with the It's Business Time group.
- Grow a small veggie garden and plan a bit for next year’s veggie garden (get tarp, put rock around the corner of the yard where it will go) YES. Not difficult to do, and being outside working in my garden is a nice antidote to being online working. Plus, Adam does show an interest in it, as long as I'm doing it, so it's a nice way for us to bond.
- Go on vacation in August with Adam and check email only once a week. Pack super light. Enjoy and soak up the moments. Let the time away from things be refreshing. YES. Done!
- Keep working out twice a week with my rad new trainer Steph. Do an unassisted pull-up. (Maybe by the end of this year, it may take longer.) I don’t have a specific weight-loss goal, because my goal with training is to gain strength and muscle, which may not mean any change in the number of pounds I weigh. YES. Super important to me.
- Keep doing yoga once a week. NO. I have to cut back on some stuff and this isn't necessary. I can stretch and do yoga at home in my own time, I don't need the class. (It's wonderful, of course, but the trade off is more time at home, which is the more important of the two right now for me.)
- Be “hands free” as much as possible when at home with my family. We want to grow our family in the next year or two, and I’ve seen over the past year that the more hands-free I am, the more connected Adam and I are to each other, and the richer our family life feels. YES. This doesn't take extra time, it just takes a bit of a shift in my consciousness around my phone.
- Look into starting a podcast. MAYBE - in 2016. Not right now. This would be fun but I can only have a few things that are priority.
- Look into doing an extended walk, perhaps around the Cabot Trail, in 2016. NO. Again, this would be fun, but I want to cut back what I'm doing and focus on a few things. This isn't necessary: I can walk shorter distances.
- Look into writing a book. (!!! This one in particular feels SCARY to say out loud. But yes. I really really really want to write a book.) NO. For the same reasons as the walk, above.