Getting Things Done ~ Conscious Awareness and Just Do It!

Do you have a bucket list? Do you have things on it that you intended to do in a certain time frame? Do life circumstances keep you occupied in such a way that it sometimes seems you may never accomplish the activities on your list?

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I was feeling that way recently. Blindsided by the number of items still left un-done on my 50@50 list I decided it was time to reevaluate my list and to analyze why more of it hadn't been accomplished. And my first thought was to let go. What I mean, is to reevaluate each item on the list and decide whether it was still important to me. Was, for example, completing a meaningful piece of art still something I wanted to do? After contemplating the value of each item, I decided that each item was still important and that I was not willing to take anything off of the list. Okay. So now what?

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The next thing I did, was to decide if my time frame is realistic...and this is where I made the first change. I decided that it is not important that I accomplish all of these items in one year. In fact, I really don't care if it takes me five years. What is important, is that I make steady progress toward completing every item.

Just after "training" :-)

About half way through the tour ~ Ashley made us do this! :-)

So, I decided to make a conscious effort to put some of the items on my calendar, or to otherwise make space for them in my life. For example, Rick and I have decided to get out of our post-grad rut. You can read about it here. Saturday, I made reservations to take the Desert Ridge Marriot Segway Tour! DONE! It was so much fun and was everything I had hoped it would be. Now I can confidently mark it off my list. Incorporating the things on my list into our week-end fun and annual vacations will ensure that activities like learning to kayak, taking the light rail, and swimming with the dolphins get done. Once a week I will be more aware of my menus and I can consciously try out a new fish recipe and I can do one meatless meal per week and try out a new vegetarian dish. I can pay attention to techniques that work well and to mistakes I make, and I can learn from them. Before I know it, I'm sure I'll be pretty good at both :-)

What is on your bucket list? What strategies will you use to accomplish the things that are important to you?

You-nique ~ Doing It Your Way

‎"There is no prescribed Way for everyone. There is just your Way for NOW -- until you choose another." ~ Rusty Berkus

I had such a delightful brunch with my sweet friend Copper this morning. During the course of our Queen Creek Olive Mill adventure our discussion got a little philosophical (as discussions tend to do with me :-). We were talking about our journey through life and how it is okay to follow our own path, to stop for awhile, to go back down the same road, and to turn around again. It is all part of OUR OWN experience. On our way back to her house, we reminisced about our friendship and how it transcends time. I love that I have friends that I can be away from for years and then back together feeling no separation at all. You know those are the friends that love you for who you are. The ones who love you while you do it your way :-).

I am blessed to have many friends and family members who love me while I do it my way...even when others may not consider it the "right way." ~ May we all be blessed in such a way :-)