Monthly Abundance Focus

One main theme each month, a primary intention and mantra

January – TIME

Intention: Respect my own time and use it more wisely and mindfully.
Mantra: There is enough time. There is always enough time, in the Now.
Actions:
1. Set more precise time boundaries.
2. Refine FB/social media use.
3. Do pros/cons list of current obligations and activities. Discern time/energy required. Determine what has time priority. Determine ways to simplify, reduce time needed/spent.
4. Create structure and strategies for completion of paperwork and collateral communication. Keeping up on treatment plans.
5. Make time to write more. Create specific plan for when/where to write. Develop blog-posting plan. Sentences, short thought pieces, quotes? Abundance Project progress?
6. Be intentional about social and romance time.
7. Allow time to play and time to rest and/or do nothing
8. Say no to or change commitments that do not fit in your time/energy budget or align with values.
9. With board commitments, do not be afraid to delegate as much as possible and trust.
10. Respect sleep time needs. Keep regular sleep/wake hours.
11. Use your planner every day! Keep yourself organized.

Before it gets too far into February, here’s January’s theme and action steps and a little review and reflection of how it went and what I learned!

What I did – tried to do – as a basic accountability structure was review my guide-word and guide-phrases and visit the month’s intentions/action steps each day. I say, tried to do, as it didn’t happen every single day, but it did happen most days! To help me stay aligned this is exactly what I needed, to create strategies to embed these intentions and action plans in my awareness, so that they would walk with me where I walked, sit with me where I sat, be present with me wherever I was present.

Each week I also reviewed progress. It helped that in conjunction with this I also got a “fancy planner” with lots of guidance and reflection tools in it  – this was a leap of faith, as planners and I have had inconsistent relationships in the past; commitment has been an issue, you could say! But this particular planner has been fun to use and has helped me stay accountable and focused. It’s motivating to see and reward progress – and all progress counted.

I focused on Time first because time management/organization/detail overwhelm were huge drains for me last year in trying to adjust to a much busier work life + community commitments. So many times I found myself repeating the same refrain – I have too much to do, there’s not enough time! And this mentality became its own energy drain, and put me right in a place where I set myself up for time mismanagement, mental exhaustion, and more forgetting (or more kindly, less timely remembering of details and tasks!).

My purpose was to shift my mentality to shift my energy and change my relationship to my ‘busy-ness’; cultivate a more peaceable relationship with time.

So, how did it go??

You might notice that I was fairly ambitious and detailed in action steps – and might wonder, but didn’t those take time?? Well yes, they did require a time and intention commitment, but overall I feel they provided a structure and discipline I needed! And cultivated deeper self-respect, as well.

Telling myself consistently instead, there is enough time, helped me feel lighter and freer. In terms of abundance, it didn’t make there BE more time! Rather, the abundance is that it began shifting my mentality around time, and helped reverse the time and energy drain. As well, one of my guide phrases is, ‘One thing in the moment,’ and I reminded myself of this whenever I felt the weight of ‘all the things to do’ press in. Do this one thing now, with your whole attention; then do the next thing.

I got a little notebook I keep by my computer at work to write down tasks and details through the day that needed attention, and this relieved my brain and saved me time both. It helped me stay more organized and be more efficient; plus, it feels satisfying to check things off, too!

One of the most foundational action steps was #3, creating that pros/cons list, which helped me clearly identify what was costing me significantly in time/energy with less value return. That in turn helped me with #8, letting go of time commitments that were weighing me/my energy/my spirit down and perhaps even feeding resentment, burnout, overwhelm. That was difficult in one sense, as when I take on a commitment I take it seriously and have trouble letting go sometimes. But in another sense, it was so freeing, and I felt so much lighter and (time)richer once I did!

So, I learned it’s not only okay but also so vital to review and refine your commitments and obligations regularly, to focus attention and time on that which enriches you and let go of what may be impoverishing you.  As well, checking expectations and judgments – they’re draining, too! And this lesson feeds right into February’s theme, which is Energy.

And part of the blessing of abundance was that I had more time and space free for simply being, playing, enjoying friends and my kids, reading (yay!), and even writing (double yay!). It was more a matter of attention and intention, though, intentionally making choices to honor and care for what mattered most to me. Being more awake in the moment that I was in, being awake Now. (Another guide-phrase: Be here now, be awake Now.)

But did I really have more time? No – I had more life in my time! And more than that, I feel like I simply had more life … still boundaried by time in practical ways, but also less bound by it in my spirit. 

So thank you, January, and hello, February!