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?

Believe in Yourself

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

When I was younger, I didn't believe that I had what it took to complete a college degree. I felt that my lack of math and science aptitude would prevent me from doing the one thing I felt would be the biggest accomplishment of my life. And I felt that way for over 25 years! It wasn't that I didn't have a ton of people who believed in me; I just didn't believe in myself. Then, one day, about 2 years after the death of my sister, Barb, and after throwing myself into every hobby and interest I could in order to fill the great chasm left by her loss, I decided to go back to school. Still, I felt inadequate, but perhaps I felt like I had nothing else to lose. I had also gone through a pretty devastating divorce and had lost some pretty important friends. I really had no where to go but up, so I enrolled in a psychology 101 course. I loved it, and earning an A gave me a tiny boost of confidence, so I enrolled in my first math class. It was just the basics (I figured I'd guarantee myself success by starting at the beginning) and I earned an A. So, I enrolled in the next math class, and a science class and so on...earning all As. About two months before graduating from Chandler Gilbert Community College, I received a letter informing me that I was selected to receive the Emerging Math and Science Award! In addition, I was also honored with the title Who's Who in American Junior Colleges. What? Get Out! Seriously!? Seriously. Here I come ASU.

I found myself sitting in an auditorium sized classroom with a Professor who could be my son! In my notebook; I wrote, "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." To make a long story short, I graduated from ASU with a 4.05 gpa and a lifetime membership in PSI CHI (Psychology Students Honor Society).

My point here is not to brag about accomplishment; but to encourage you to take the baby steps that will lead you to your greatness. For me, I had to start back at the beginning to build my confidence. For you, it might just mean doing it through your fear. What do you have to lose?