I've told you about how my "Word of the Year" is Finish. That word has sort of depressed me this month, because I have finished precious little. Taking time this morning to reflect on my lack of finished items, I've decided that the situation isn't all that bad. "Finish" is the word of the year, the whole year. It's not supposed to provide instant gratification. Finishing anything is a journey to work towards, that's why it's so satisfying when you come to the end.
My journey this month was about "Focus". Learning to focus on the things that need to be done, and having the focus to see them through. Learning to direct my focus on what it is I'm trying to achieve without letting other forces get in my way. I must have more focus to avoid the "Pooh Bear Effect" (you know, the happily going about a task until a butterfly flies past, and you go chasing after it, leaving the original task behind syndrome?). Focus is about paying closer attention to where I am and what I'm doing, so I can see things differently than I do, and notice things that I haven't noticed before.Yesterday I looked over my to-do list for February and saw the list of 10 things I needed or wanted to do this month, and found only 3 of them finished. I'm taking today as a gift, and focusing on the things that I did finish, the small achievements, rather than an unfinished list.
I've been keeping a daily journal this year; 2 actually. In one I write down something positive that happened in my day (some days that's no so easy!) . In the other, I write down the creative thing(s) I did each day. Every day is about finding something creative to do! Having this journal makes it easy to go back to later when I think, "I've accomplished nothing!", and see in writing all the things I have done, regardless of the 7 things still on the to-do list. It's a fun task to make a journal page at the beginning of the month, with torn papers, stamps, paints doodles etc.
