I talk about setting goals a lot. What you’ve noticed? I’m not surprised really, if living the life you want is actually a body then goals are the skeleton, actions are the muscles and motivation, resilience and confidence run through the veins.
But what I want to talk about today is the skin that holds it all together. The here and now. Awareness of who we are and where we are; and in one word -MINDFULNESS. Lockdown and Covid have become words used everyday. We are living but not in the way we are used to. Its all too easy to think about what we don’t have, the freedom we have lost, rather than celebrating the small joys of living, just in a different way.
Yesterday I said goodbye to a friend, taken too young and he loved life. Of course it serves as a stern reminder that life is for enjoying, and making the most of what you have – that goes without saying, but a salient point for me is in all these weeks of cold January rain, yesterday was cold clear and the sun came it. We were unable to go to the service as numbers are limited, but I am grateful that we were able to watch the procession through town and be able to say goodbye.
Another example at the moment is that I am currently employed 2 days and now find myself trying to work from home, when I am not doing that I am working from home doing my self employed bits, writing blog posts, reaching out to people, creating, accounts…. and when I’m not doing that I’m trying to clear the dining room table of all the junk so that at the weekend we can play a game, or totally out of the box, use the dining room table to have a meal. Life very easily becomes a blur.
My staple solution is around compartmentalising my life. It’s about putting concepts in boxes and keeping them separate. It’s extraordinary difficult at the moment as anyone home schooling or working from home will concur. The solution? Well that’s whatever is right for you. One suggestion is to persevere, keep putting those tasks back in their right boxes, that’s got to help, but if like me and right now doing that tips your stress levels above a tolerable threshold then it is time to let go. Allow the week to become a blur, moving from one thing to another. Your employer wont notice if you took 30 minutes out to solve a mathematics problem, as long as all those customers were called.
The one thing I make sure I do, is clear my desk/table for the weekend. I have a bag that all my work files go into and I make sure they get put away neatly and I close up my laptop. Then hubby and I can make the weekend a weekend, get out a board game or have a takeaway around the table. But cherish these moments, thank god you have your health, toast the fact that you’ve got through the week without a full blown row, and enjoy the much quieter trip to the supermarket. Even the slub of baileys in my hot chocolate after the morning weekend dog walk rings the changes – these are days you may miss when when life returns to normal.
My Book – Don’t Just Dream It Achieve It – has lots of great survival advice and help with motivation. It also has a number of mindfulness exercises to help your mindset – a bargain really and available from my online shop
I’m always here to help with motivation, confidence and mindset – ore and more of my customers are choosing telephone or zoom sessions and continue to make great progress against their goals so if you need a bit of extra support surviving lock-down; then give me a call on 07714 216388 and we can have a chat to see if I can help.
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