Thursday, December 23, 2010

Just One Thing (from here on out affectionately referred to as JOT) Day 1

So this is it.

My enthusiasm and decisiveness have reached critical mass at the same time, and so I'm launching a project that I'm fascinated by and a little leary of all at the same time.

Which is good. Perfect, in fact.

One should not begin a process of change that one feels totally relaxed about. Safety brings complacency and boredom to the table, eventually leading to premature retirement syndrome: it just doesn't go anywhere.

It takes some good old fashioned resistance and occasional jolts of fear to make an effort like this recognizable to the ego, and then the real challenge commences.

And just to round out the personas accounted for, this endeavor has momentum and energy behind it that has been building for quite some time, unbeknownst to my conscious awareness until last week.

The timing of it all is a bit puzzling though, since I normally do not indulge in the whole resolution setting debacle at year's end, or beginning for that matter, so I'm not waiting until January 1 to start.

I'm starting today with the Just One Thing initiative.   

Just One Thing, as in pick something and let yourself surrender to the process of moving towards it and enjoying the feeling of the adventure along the way.

Just one thing, and then do just one thing every day that puts you one infinitesimal step closer towards attaining it.

Not 43.

Not a handful.

Just one.

And allow the babystep accumulation to sweep you over the top of your goal, which might very well morph and molt and be something totally different by the time you come up for air.

The goal is really beside the point.

Doesn't matter what it is.

Losing weight.

Dropping the smoking habit.

Exercising.

Eating better.

Cooking more meals at home, and more often with all the members of your family present.

Finding something else to do besides watching television.

Cleaning out the garage/closets/spare bedroom/hallways because we can't walk in them anymore.

Finding a different job.

Deciding to like the one you have.

Finding the love of your life.

Falling in love again with the one you've got.

Putting some time in to learning a new hobby.

Picking one up again that you enjoyed in the past.

Feel better about life in general.

Doing what it takes to officially/governmentally/on-the-grid start your own business.

Practice public speaking/performance art/stand-up at a level you've only dared to sort of think about, sometimes.

I could go on.

There is something about which you might be hovering at the edge of crossing a line in your head about doing/being/having.

And at the moment you choose to follow where it wants to take you, then you're in this thing.

That's where I am, and I'm going to apply this babystep accumulation process to the last two items on the list I rambled on and on about.

And then I want to document that process, here on this blog (Unless I do it somewhere else. Because I fully expect that this ride will take some twists and turns and produce some fabulous, here-to-fore unknowable results that might have it look different than when it started. Hoping so).

To demonstrate what that looks like. That it's doable. That I get what my thought chaperone coaching clients go through because I do it myself, on purpose. That there are levels of blissmongering, and I'm diving in to find out what some of them are.

I plan to label my posts on this topic with "Day 7 - JOT", or something similar, so you can tag along with me and keep pace with where I am in the journey.

I don't plan to comment so much on what I'm doing, which I'm sure I'll do some of, but more about what new way of being this practice is creating for me. What new thoughts I'll have access to, what new experiences I'll savor, what new people I'll meet, what old stereotypes I'll put to rest, what new layers of feeling good about being alive show up.

So here I go--exposed, accountable, vulnerable, and rarin' to go.

Care to join me?

364 days from now there will be roughly at least 1200 hours with which you can look back on from a place of engagement and discovery, or the same ol'-same ol'.

I know what vantage point I'd rather be lookin' from.

 

 

 

Dec 23, 2010 9:52:45 PM | emotional scale, energy, JOT, Resistance Toys, Thought Chaperone

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JOT 2,3 - The Follow Through Let's see--I think I'll first list what it was that I did, and then any processing or insights that come along. Yeah, that sounds good. Yesterday was day 2 of this adventure, and I had the opportunity to research on the computer for several hours on what it takes to register a small biz in the state I find myself in these days. And I signed up for access to some video and content that will jumpstart by small biz in sales, building lists and creating content that sells. At first I was going to name this thing I'm doing Twenty Minutes a Day, but the time thing wasn't in the spirit of how I am approaching this, so hitching my enthusiasm to just one thing, a babystep that I could complete on its own or continue with a long as it felt good, felt like the way to go. Today, day 3, I'm going to read a bit more in the public speaking books I've gotten so much great energy from. The holidays present even more of a challenge in terms of making the time to do what it is you've said you want to do for yourself. Family and friends clamor for your presence, and it's easy to just give up on doing something in the direction of where you are going. So I'm going to hold the space for effortless slots of time showing up for me to be able to do just one thing over the next week when my family will be around 24/7, and report on how that went. It will require some discipline and resolve and some unaccustomed "selfishness", which has an entirely different connotation to it in Abraham vernacular. Unless we decide to do what is important to us, we learn to...

Deb Schanilec

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