Intentions for 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR FELLOW RED HEADS!!!

I just love the new year!  For me it's a time of new beginnings - A clean slate to set right all the things that aren’t working and to create endless possibilities.  I can spend hours contemplating those possibilities and praying for the lucky events that will bring them about.  For instance, that I will miraculously have the desire to skip the ice cream I’m craving and go get a salad instead.  Or that someone will walk up to me on the street and offer me my perfect job opportunity.  Unfortunately we all know that illusions evaporate quickly and I knew that I had to take decided action to make my goals happen. In the past, I would set the resolution and go after it with gusto.  (Yeah, and that would last until about Valentine’s Day.) Then I would beat myself up over my lack of discipline to complete my goal. 

This year, I’m shooting for sustained progress on my goals.  My goal for 2012 is to: BECOME THE MASTER OF MY OWN TIME

This has always been extremely difficult for me and in the past, I have preferred to make choices that would regulate my time for me and create dead lines the would force me into action (i.e a regular job with regular hours) because I felt that I wasn’t very good at self-motivation especially when it came to things I didn’t want to do. 

I have to say that over the years, I have found a few time management tricks that do work for me.  The biggest is the amount of time I spend on a task.  I hate housework with a purple passion.  I'm the kind of person likes to do a task and know that when it’s done I’ll never have to do it again, but housework… no matter how well I do it, I’ve got to do it again.  So taking the 2 hours a week to clean my house didn’t always happen because it took all my energy just to get motivated.  On the flip side there are other things that when I start, I don’t stop until I’m done.  An example of that would be research papers for college. When I sit down to work on them I lose all concept of time.  I don’t eat or even get up from my desk unless I have to go to the bathroom.  That’s not healthy either.  What I needed was balance. 

Years ago I found a principal that said you can do anything in 15 minutes a day.  Emily Barnes (author of “The 15 Minute Organizer) states that 15 minutes a day for 5 days on a task creates 2 ½ hours of progress by the end of the week.  Now here was a concept I could use.   I can stand to spend 15 minutes on a task I hate, however, 15 minutes isn’t nearly long enough to accomplish anything on a larger project like a research paper or a business plan.  Cool thing is that, I’m the master of my time so I simply allot more time for the bigger jobs.  Here’s how that’s panned out for me – 45 minutes on a large project and I must take a break, so I get up and do 15 minutes of cleaning in 1 room of the apartment.  In the space of 4 hours, I have accomplished 3 hours of work on the project and an hour on the apartment.  And since it only takes 2 hours to clean completely, I’m half done.

With a plan like that, I should already be accomplishing everything on my to-do list every day and be ahead of the game.  Not so!!  I struggle with motivation.  I find that I fritter away much of my valuable time in avoidance patterns.  What makes me avoid something? Puhleeeze… I have all kinds of reasons.  First would be how “bought in” am I to the task?  If I don’t like to do it, chances are, I’m not going to do it.  Time is also a factor, how much do I have or want to devote to a project or task? Then I find that I often have fear around a task.  This probably encompasses about 90% of the reasons I give myself for not getting started.  Lastly, I’ve spent much of my life involved in mediocre things that I was not passionate about. 

Well this year, I’m taking charge.  I’ve found my passion and I want nothing more than to be a success as a life coach.  Unfortunately, now I find that FEAR is my biggest enemy.  I want to live my life out loud so fear is something I will face quite a bit and I figure that if I’m dealing with it, then you may be too.  So this year, I want to talk about “setting intentions “and how to go about achieving them.  Since my intention is to become the master of my time in order to reach my ultimate dream, I’ve taken the step to post my “6 Most Important Things To Do” every day on my Facebook fan page.  I will periodically up date this through out the day with challenges and triumphs.  I invite you to post your own list and updates.  Next, my blog will post every Monday with discussion topics about intentions.  All comments, tips, tricks and questions are welcome.  My goal is to work through my own fear and create sustained progress, and maybe you will be able to create the same results for yourself in the coming year and take one more step to being a “decided red head.”

Much love and believe

Tammy