How is this journey different from my previous pattern? Now that I have finished and analyzed the
previous system, what am I going to do differently this time to make it work?
For one, I’m doing one thing at a time. Which is incredibly difficult for me. I have a hard time delaying my gratification
(as mentioned earlier), and I want it all fixed now. I also sometimes have a hard time choosing
which one is the “right” thing to be working on right now. They’re all “right”, and how can I ignore the
other problems? In a different way than
I have been ignoring them in the past – by concentrating on one thing at a time
rather than on nothing.
Even with this, I’m still doing multiple things. I have really added 3 things to my life
recently – this journey, volunteering, and a cleaning plan. I’ve also recently checked out a social group
I haven’t been to before and started a crafting project for a Yule gift. And I have plenty of excuses and reasons why
“this isn’t like before” and all that.
Rather than just give them to you, let’s analyze.
Let’s start with the last one – the new crafting
project. I go through cycles. I craft for a bunch of months then set it all
aside for a couple of years. I am
currently in a crafting section of the cycle.
I have recently completed two other projects. The crafting cycle got started when I grew
tired of just watching TV and bored with the puzzle books I had been doing for
a couple of months since getting them for Christmas. This new crafting project is a replacement of
the old crafting projects which were replacements for the puzzle books. In addition, this crafting project has a
deadline (Yule) and an emotional investment in it. If I do not complete it, I will not be able
to give it to my husband. My husband
knows I’m making something, has seen me working on it, and knows that it’s
going to involve at least one of the colors of his favorite football team. If I do not complete this, I will be
disappointing myself and him. As I have
been doing it, I find that it’s not as difficult as I feared, and that Yule
will be a decent if not easy time goal.
To analyze – I have made some free time in my life and put the crafting
project in it, I have chosen something that is both a little challenging and
achievable, and I have an emotional investment in completing it. Better than some of the projects I start.
On to the new social group.
It meets once a month. It
fulfills a need I have thought over and described to others in the past couple
of years. The chosen night is one that
typically I have nothing going on. Now,
there are times when I feel like I’m doing too much, when I want more down
time, when I want to just go home, curl up in the chair, and read a good book
without having to worry about laundry or guests or chores or getting somewhere
on time. I acknowledge this, and I know
that committing to something social that happens more often than once a month
would be an imposition, as would committing to multiple somethings that happen
once a month. To analyze – I have some
free time in my life, some of which I am willing to give up in order to fulfill
a several-year-long desire.
The cleaning plan is this – clean 15 minutes each day,
upstairs for week A, downstairs for week B, in a 2-week rotating pattern. As I have mentioned earlier in the blog, I
ended up with a dirty home, which drives me nuts. This plan is small enough for me to do but
also accomplishes things that need to be done.
In addition, I have an out. If I
don’t want to or can’t or whatever, then I don’t have to, but I have to pay $5
to the kitty. This kitty will be used
for pseudo fun things, like the hotel on a trip. Yes, the trip is fun, and the hotel is
essential for it, but I’d rather have the extra $5 to buy cool stuff rather
than be practical about it. To analyze –
it’s small, consistent, helpful, and optional to a degree.
Volunteering is again something I have been talking about
for a long time and which seems to get thwarted every time I try
something. Even now, I reached out to
two different agencies whose services I use often. Both of them had times for me to assist – at the
same time as the other agency. Both have
other things I could do – but each person in charge of those things is on
vacation. I have accepted the times for
one of the agency and have left my name and number with the other for one-time
things that don’t require me to miss work to do. To analyze – it fulfills a highly-held value
of mine, and it gets me out of my house and my comfort zone, which is part of
the point of this journey – to adjust my life.
Even if this does not work out in the end, it is something that I will
preferred to have tried and ended than never to have done.
5 things at a time, instead of 1, like I was planning. But it’s a far cry from the 12 things at a
time in my previous system, which was cut down quite a bit from my 30ish every
day system I had going at one point. It
is not perfect, but it is progress.
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