Happy Spring! (aka January #2 aka The Real New Year)
If you're like me, you're just now starting to emerge from your deep, dark Netflix cave and realize that 2021 is in full swing. For me, April is the new year.
Spring is a time of new beginnings and refreshes from the lies we told in January at the beginning of Winter when we were all vitamin D deficient and not to mention the year we spent literally in pajamas due to the COVID-19.
I'm getting started with my year, so I thought I would share my #SpringCleaning to do list to refresh ya mind!
GET RID OF
...all of the expectations you had for this year. The New Year's Resolution you made? Forget about it. Chances are you didn't act right anyway. Take what you've learned from your trials and tribulations and make for a real, sustainable beginning.
RESET
...your goals for the remaining three seasons. List a few things you'd like to accomplish this Spring and Summer, and make them realistic but exciting! Was your New Year's Resolution to finally finish that book you've been writing for the past ten years??? Make a goal to complete your manuscript by the end of Spring by writing in the morning on Sundays. If you stick to your small goal, you'll at least come close to your big goal by the end of the season.
ALLOW SPACE
...in your schedule to let your newly cleaned to do list grow with intention.
Too often we spend every day of every week of every month, planning for the future. The millennial generation especially has a bunch of angst about being entrepreneurs. We are all starting a blog, opening an online boutique, starting a YouTube channel (all of which are horrifyingly tied to the internet, smh).
Sometimes I plan, and re-plan and convince myself it helps me feel better, but it really just adds more stress because now I have a long list of things to do in every waking moment, and now I've given myself deadlines too!!
Planning is helpful and gives you a chance to look ahead a bit to make strategic moves. Over planning takes too much time, energy, and takes all of the flexibility out of your life which adds stress. By the time you're done with your elaborate plan there's hardly any energy to execute it. Don't overcrowd your schedule to the point you have no room to breathe. You'll get none of it done. Reject the culture of "busy equals productive". Studies show it's really the opposite [but I don't feel like looking up that citation so fend for yourselves, people].
TIP: Try time blocking and breaking tasks up into small pieces. It helps get things done and frees your mind on the down time. Carve out a specific time weekly or daily to get something fully completed (instead of doing a little bit each day). This will knock down your to-do list and give you free time in the day to chill.
REFOCUS
...on the now. Take time to enjoy the things you have and enjoy the weather outside as it permits and take it day by day without skipping ahead. Thinking about the outcome of whatever you're doing instead of focusing on enjoying the process leaves you feeling less fulfilled when everything is over.
I used to get extra stressed whenever it was time to throw an event. I like to plan events, but when the focus became how many ticket sales we could get and how many bodies we could convince to fill the room, the process became outcome-oriented and I ended up hating something I previously enjoyed. Refocus on the purpose of why you're doing your art in this life (whatever that art is) and create a life where that purpose and enjoyment is centered.
Happy spring cleaning! I'll see y'all at the end of the summer when it's reflection time LOL.