Friday, April 17, 2009

Taking Time To Plan For You

There are so many things I first heard about years ago that I am now finally processing.
I don't know why I do that.  
When it comes to learning things in school, I am very good.  I was always an "A" student.  And yet, when it comes to learning things about life, it takes me years of being knocked on the head before I get the lesson.
I was thinking today about what I heard another artist talking about.  She was talking about designing your perfect day, and asking what it would consist of for the perfect life you want. Not perfect as in nothing ever goes wrong, but that you are living the life you truly want to live.
What exactly would that day look like?
What exactly do you want?
Not, "oh yeah, I want to make a living as an artist" (or whatever your dream is) but what exactly do you want? 
What are the details?  What would each hour of each day consist of in order to live the life you want? 
Lately, I have been seeing some of the things I have wanted getting back on the road after having been sidetracked several months back.  But I can tell that I am still wasting a lot of valuable time and I am not anywhere near as productive as I know I can be.  
After listening to this particular online artist talk about not being vague with your dreams but to look at your life and define exactly what it is that you want, I realize I have not done that.
I heard that lesson a million years ago, about having goals and writing them down in detail, but that looked so boring and like it would be too much work and take too long to do.  It has finally hit me that yes, it takes a little time and work to do, but it would have taken maybe just a little afternoon to do and it would have probably saved me years and years of wasted, unproductive time.
I remember when I was getting my teaching credentials a few years back we had a lesson called "Spending Time to Make Time."  Not being Ms. Organized, I thought, what a stupid waste of time detailing every minute of every day's lessons.  Through trial and error I finally learned that yes, guess what?  If you take the time to write out beforehand everything you need to do, it saves an enormous amount of time because you have already planned out everything and prepared for every lesson, as opposed to the way I originally did things, which was to do them thinking I had everything under control, and then finding out I hadn't properly planned for this event or I forgot the materials I needed for that event.  Once I started planning my days and lessons in detail, what a difference it made in productivity as well as success.
I am glad I talked about it here because I can see that just in writing my thoughts about this down here in detail, I now feel more excited than ever to get down to the business of making a detailed plan for what I really want in life.  And I will be anxious to see the results.
I hope you don't take as long as me to learn lessons.
If you do, heaven help you  ;)
Hope you have a great weekend!
Love,
Carol B.
   

2 comments:

Dawn Marie said...

I think procrastination is sometimes just a way of life for most of us. I truly think so many Americans are burnt out from working so hard to keep things going,,,that sometimes we dont want to do anything but waste time!

I'm pretty much a planner and most times stick to it--but occasionally I will just allow myself to do nothing-just sit and daydream

Catherine Holman said...

You can do it Carol! Thanks for signing up for my giveaway and good luck!
Catherine