It’s Only Almost March: Finally Setting Intentions in 2019

Man, it does not feel great to be feeling the need to apologize for a long break between posts… AGAIN, already. I promised myself that writing emPATHETIC would be different than all of the blogs I started and stopped before. I swore up and down that I would keep up with it, and have a multitude of reasons to blog. So I promised myself that I would finally stick to something. Of course, I promised myself that I would, and so I didn’t.

That has been my pattern for as long as I can remember. I know that there’s this thing I want to do, or at least I think I want to do it and I say I want to do it, and I know how I can go about doing it, but I just… don’t. I put it off and procrastinate and feed my avoidance tendencies and before I know it, another month or season or year has gone by and I’m still procrastinating my desires, goals, and dreams.

Made for More

Last night, I re-watched the Made for More documentary from Rachel Hollis after watching with Mom two weeks ago. Her book, Girl, Wash Your Face, was the first book I read in 2019. Ever since the new year, I’ve launched into these first months with a season of self-exploration, discovery, and setting intentions. I don’t know why the potential of hitting “Publish” gives me such anxiety, but I do know one thing…

In her RISE weekend, she says if there’s something you can’t stop thinking about, that’s the universe telling you what to chase. For me, that is writing.

I have 202 notes saved on my iPhone, and 19 drafts in my blog posts list at the moment. I know not everyone feels this compulsion to write, so why am I not leaning more into that desire and recognizing it for what it probably is – a part of my calling and purpose?

I’ve written before about the fears I have around writing, but I know that I wouldn’t continue to feel pulled to write and share my thoughts and emotions unless there’s a reason I should be pushing myself to overcome that fear.

My ONE Thing

Reid read a book last year and shared with me some of his takeaways on The ONE Thing. In a nutshell, the author asks, “What is the one thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” Rachel Hollis also mentions this in one of her RISE talks.

In October, I had a realization that I want to become a published author one day. I even wrote a whole almost-completed blog post on it that got misplaced in the process of Reid and I transferring over our website domains to a new host server. So, I allowed that to discourage me from finding it and posting it yet, but I will. And if I have a goal to one day write a novel, and to encourage and inspire others to live with more empathy through kind words, then what is my ONE thing, my one gift, I can lean more into to accomplish that? Writing, and writing every day, and writing with intentionality and purpose.

So here is me, standing amidst all my past blogs and notebooks and years of procrastination, declaring, 2019 will be different. This will be my year to cultivate a writing habit and follow through on a commitment to myself, for myself.

My Writing Habit and Routine

I will publish 3 posts a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. For one of those (most likely will make it ‘Weeds in Wind Wednesdays) I want to write out my memories, stories, and lessons of each week/location from our time in the RV. Rachel says to devote 5 hours a week to your one goal. So, I will write for at least 5 hours a week and publish 3 times a week (even if those posts turn out to only be a couple of sentences if I’m behind on creating a backlog of blogs). My sacred writing time will be 8:30 – 9:30 am, Monday thru Friday.

Another thing Reid and I have been talking a lot about so far this year is creating an ideal daily/weekly schedule/routine to follow. Because if you don’t make time for working on goals, then they’re not gonna happen. So here is my daily routine moving forward –

• 7:00 am _ Wake up and make bed
• 7:00 – 8:30 am _ Morning Routine = Drink a glass of water, yoga, meditate, journal, and get ready
• 8:30 – 9:30 am _ Writing time
• 9:30 am – 12:30 pm _ Morning productive work (working with Reid on his business, my own projects to help family out, or OzoBlog work)
• 12:30 – 1:00 pm _ Lunch
• 1:00 – 2:00 pm _ Walk Lincoln while listening to a podcast
• 2:00 – 5:00 pm _ Afternoon productive work
• 5:00 – 10:30 pm _ Cook/eat Dinner, chill time
• 10:30 – 11:30 pm _ Nighttime Routine = shower, floss, skincare, retainer, hand lotion
• 11:30 pm _ In bed reading, asleep by midnight to get at least 7 hours

Then, each Sunday, I can take a few minutes to review how my plan worked for the week. If needed, I can tweak the routine as I go. I don’t need to be 100% constrained to a schedule OR ELSE. But, if I don’t start planning, then I’ll keep procrastinating. And I want to be able to say by end of 2019, “I promised myself I would, so I DID.”