(I was sick yesterday, so this is Friday’s blog!)
With the last meditation challenge complete, I’m re-listening to the 21-day audio meditation Manifesting True Success from Oprah and Deepak. Yesterday’s was focused on “T” in the acronym SMART: Time.
On the phone with my new goals group this past Sunday, I told them that, while my larger goal is to write a book (details emerging), my relationship with Time must needs be my other focal point for our 6 months together.
“I cram,” I told the ladies. In the last goals group, I would do all the writing the hour before the call and felt like I didn’t get out of the group all I might have. Perhaps by writing a little throughout the week, I could have more time to reflect and therefore more time to evolve.
And, wouldn’t you know, the meditation this week was, “Timing for Success.”
I really liked the reference Deepak made to this categorizing of our daily lives:
- Sleep time: Getting a full night’s restful sleep
- Physical time: Time to move and let my body be active
- Focus time: Being alone for a while to concentrate on what matters to me
- Time in: Time for meditation, prayer, self-reflection
- Time out: Time to simply be here, and rest into existence (How do you like that phrase?!)
- Play time: Time to have fun and enjoy myself
- Connecting time: Intimate private time between me and those I care about.
What strikes me immediately, and pointed out by my therapist many months ago, is that I make little time for Play. What happens in that structure is that I avoid or procrastinate Focus time (and Physical time) because I feel deprived:
If I haven’t done anything fun or creative, I have less in the well. If I have less in the well, large tasks become insurmountable. And so the cycle continues.
“Fun leads to productivity” seems like a strange concept, but for the deprivation addict that I am/have been, it’s key. Because the reverse is true, too: “Productivity leads to fun.” If I don’t put off what must be done, then I don’t feel guilty doing something fun.
When I feel guilty, I procrastinate even my fun! It’s a terrible cycle. So I have to shift to feeding all the parts of my day, and therefore myself. If I want to focus more, I have to play more. If I want to play more, I actually have to focus!
“Eat the frog first,” as they say.
With the new goals group, I hope to have a bit more accountability for my time—for my play time and therefore my accomplishy time.
Yesterday afternoon, I had the first call of my new Goals Group. Like the last one I participated in, we’ll have a group phone call wherein we’ll walk through a series of weekly assigned questions—about our vision for our lives, our goals, a specific goal, what blocks us from this goal, how we can accept help to overcome these blocks, and how we will maintain these (generally spiritual) connections to ensure we continue actions toward fulfilling our vision.
Owning Voice 