Every few weeks I find myself making adjustments. Does this happen to you? Maybe life has caused a transition that needs my attention. My one-year old son has been having a hard time sleeping and for those of you that have been there, you know the toll that takes on us. Work has changed. Relationships too. Life, as we've talked about recently requires us to be flexible. That is a key characteristic of resiliency.
There are five things that I do daily that are just for me :
journal
read
write
walk
note cards (when I read anything I take notes on index cards and then I store them, building a commonplace book of knowledge, wisdom, quotes, stories, etc.
Material for life and writing).
These come in no order. They are however, practices I have high reverence for. While there is no rigid routine to these, I do have an ideal way I want them to go.
As I am currently witness to, my ideal shifts to the adaptive version and so my writing starts later and so too does posting on this here blog. My goal was to write before my kid (s) wake up and post by 5am. Mostly, this self-imposed checkpoint was for my own compliance of showing up each day and doing the work on something I aspire to do. Write. Be an author. To keep me accountable.
However, I've built the muscle on showing up every day. Procrastination does not hit me as it used to. So this self-imposed deadline each day, can move. I have become flexible in my practices. My five practices still get done each day, that is the most important thing.
How we start will not be how we progress or finish. All we control are our actions. The deadlines will move. Interruptions will happen. Resilience in part, is to embrace the changes in daily life and keep going anyway. Using these interruptions to redefine what is revered.
If someone or something is important to you - you will find a way to show up for them or it. With zero expectation. No parades being thrown in your favor. Do you want it? If so what are you willing to do for it?
To be a parent! Only one really knows how flexible we really need to be. Each year I have to make a new schedule with 3 kids in different schools, new sports being played and of course my attention that is always needed.
I, too, have become flexible and resilient through this process and your post today is such a great reminder of that.