Homework

March 2012
NOTE: These assignments are taken verbatim from Julien's post on How to Change Your Life. I'm keeping the assignments here because I will look at them and have an anywhere-everywhere location for reminding myself and looking at my progress, should there happen to be any, and for updates on what I have done and what I think of it. So really, this is more for me, but you're welcome to watch along the way.


Julien says that change takes guts to take action. He's right. I don't lack guts, or even a reminder system, but these days it seems I do lack time. Somewhere in the span of making certain I get as many MustDoTasks accomplished before I fall into bed each day (trust me, I gave up on doing them all well over a year ago) has left me with almost no time for working on myself. If ever there were a thumbnail guide to how to create your own failure, it would read: don't worry about it. no seriously. do nothing at all. failure will take care of itself.


More than ever, I'm committed to making the next decade one of real success. Not just because it is a good thing to do, or because I want my family to enjoy the rewards of success, or because I want to be a great role model for my children. All of those things are true, and they are all good things, but they aren't good enough to warrant carving out time to focus on my own betterment. The reason I'm doing it is because I deserve to succeed. I deserve to define success for myself and then set out to achieve it. Selfish? Most definitely. My success is no one else's to own. If you think badly of me for that, that's ok with me.

Homework assignment 1.
I know you guys like homework, so here’s something for you to do right now. List the 5 most important things you can do to improve your day. Then, place them in order of difficulty, starting with the hardest. Next, set your alarm right now at one hour earlier than you’re used to waking up, and begin tomorrow morning with the hardest task you have.

Step 1.
    Most important things I can do to improve my day:
  • Meditation / t'ai chi / chi gong / yoga (pick one)
Step 2.
    Order of difficulty, hardest first:

March 1, 2012: Holy cow. I really didn't think that coming up with 5 things to imporove my day would be a stumper.

But for some reason it is proving terribly difficult.
More thinking. More tea.

April 26, 2012: Signed up for Six Sigma certification classes. Now I have real homework to go with my self-imposed regimen.
The list now reads:
Step 1.
    Most important things I can do to improve my day:
  • Meditation / t'ai chi / chi gong / yoga (pick one)
  • Go to class
  • Take notes for the weekly test
Step 2.
    Order of difficulty, hardest first:
  1. Go to class
  2. Meditation / t'ai chi / yoga (pick one for that day)
  3. Take notes for the weekly test

May 7, 2012: And somehow, a near fortnight has passed, all in a blur of things feeling as though even brushing my teeth would end up in a Major Project. [Don't believe me? Ask me about the mirror that shivered.]
The list now reads:
Step 1.
    Most important things I can do to improve my day:
  • Meditation / t'ai chi / chi gong / yoga (pick one)
  • Go to class
  • Take notes for the weekly test
  • Do laundry in the morning
Step 2.
    Order of difficulty, hardest first:
  1. Do a load of laundry in the morning
  2. Go to class
  3. Meditation / t'ai chi / yoga (pick one for that day)
  4. Take notes for the weekly test
See you at 6 a.m.

July 11, 2012
I've done a lot lately (see my mid-year retrospective from yesterday), but one of the things I didn't manage to put into my routine was doing laundry in the morning. I had totally forgotten I had even put this on my list, and this morning on the way to work I had an ah-ha! moment where I realized that my world would be much more manageable if I put a load of laundry in before I left the house each day. Imagine my chagrin and surprise when I opened up the homework to update it accordingly and found the item already there, weeks ago. Whoops. Good to know I was right. This time, I'll be adding an alarm to my phone: 6:45 -- put laundry in the washer.

August 2, 2016
*poof*

November 29, 2016
Wow.
Thinking about where I've been in the past four-and-a-half years is really something.
I've moved house three times since the initial post, and that's the easiest of all that has happened:

  • The children have grown
  • Education ran rampant over the past four years:
    • Six Sigma Green Belt, IT
    • Lean Six Sigma Certification
    • Associate's Degree in Paralegal Studies
    • Master's Degree in Liberal Studies
  • Work was non-existent for three years, until I decided I didn't want a job, and now I love what I do.
  • I pared down my possessions.
  • I did a Whole30.
  • I quit smoking, drinking, and taking anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication.
  • I joined a gym, ditched it and joined a better one.
  • I started reading the Tao Te Ching every day.
  • I started meditating, going to the sauna regularly, and took up walking on the greenway and in the neighborhood as a regular event.
  • I ran a Spartan race.
  • I took a train for the first time in my life.
What's most interesting is that with the paring down of my life that I did back in 2014, I don't really have difficult things on my list anymore.
None. At. All.

It's a whole new way to live, and frankly, I love it.

The only things that go on my list are things that are wonderful, that add to my world and it's a way of living that I adore.