In the secret world that only you know, what does your ideal life look like? This isn’t the world that other people see for you. Or a world that everyone else wants. This is your world.
Thanksgiving is a great time to focus on what you feel grateful for.
If you aren’t feeling grateful this week, try brainstorming a list, or make a cool graphic like the one to the left, of everything in your life that brings you joy. Push yourself to make the list as long as possible so you remember to include the goofy things and the cool things – like chocolate. Or playing with your dog. Or sunrises.
When you have a million things to do, everything feels important, and whatever’s next on the list gets done. You may have an edgy feeling that you’re missing out, that there’s something you should be doing, but who has time to think about it, right? You’re getting stuff done, so go go go.
Then you wake up in the middle of the night. You glance at the clock. It’s 4:00 AM. It’s quiet and dark. You can’t go back to sleep and start to think about things that never intrude on your busy days.
How do you spend your time? Do you choose with focus and intent? Or are your days more random?
When you’re surfing the net or watching TV, is your energy up, or down? When you stop, do you feel lighter or heavier? Are you learning something? Sharing something?
Do your activities make a difference in your life or in the lives of others? Are you using your time well? Does what you’re doing affect you at a soul level? Continue reading
You are an expert. When you do that thing you do, energy flows through you and time slows down.
How do you do it?
Organizational Zen is about the peace you find prioritizing your time by working on the big stuff in your life. Not sure what your “big stuff” is?
I recently attended a class taught by the very wise, Dr. Alice Bandy. Alice helps people figure out their “Why”. Why?
To get a glimpse of your “why”, take a deep breath and ponder this question. Continue reading
Having a passion in life helps you resist the urge to waste time. Writing is my passion but it took me years to develop it into a habit.
What I learned along the way was that for me to write a novel, I had to treat writing like it was a job. It took time, intent, commitment, focus, and prioritization to turn an idea for a historic story into a book.
Here are my big take-aways that can be applied to any new habit.
Organizational Zen is about being organized in a way that brings you peace. It’s not about trying to nail down every aspect of your life, to be neat as a pin, or to always be perfect and in control. And it’s not about trying to organize others – you’re concentrating on your own good work.
Organizational Zen is about deciding how you want to spend your time, then prioritizing and focusing on what you’re doing.
Here’s an exercise I learned in Lissa Rankin’s book Mind Over Medicine that gives you a visual of the essential things you need in your life to feel balanced.
I did some thinking about what the rocks are in my cairn and came up with a long list. Continue reading
If you find yourself saying, “I wish I could get more done,” stop for a minute and think about exactly what it is you want to get done.
Organizational Habits 