Of Fears & Fireworks

Well friends, when I decided my November plan, I was not expecting the fear that would come with the October 31st announcement. Unexpected as the next month will be, I am continuing with my plan, because it’s making my heart smile, and that’s as good enough a reason as any!

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Embracing New Traditions

I will not bang on about this, because we all know that this year is not one where the usual has happened. In many ways I would not mind this. I have a fondness of the unusual and love a good change up. This was not that. I could choose to embrace the fear, or I could choose to see fireworks in the dark sky. I am mostly on the endeavour of looking up. As I entered the ‘Fall’ season of my 2020 Powersheets, I was encouraged to think about what I wanted to savour in this season. I began to concoct a new menu for seasons palate.

Red Wine and Hot Chocolate gave flavour to nights in with films, books and long phone calls whilst watching the rain on my window. Weekends would be adorned with blustery walks back to home cooked rich flavoured meals. Internally an uprooting would be beginning to take place and I am already seeing the clearing of the weeds happen. I am trusting the fall.

If you know me, you know though that all sounds like a 30-something instagram feed, that’s not me in this season. This season is often so rushed, peppered with rehearsals, meetings, Christmas preparations and forgetting that I was meant to take time to write Christmas cards and drink cocoa with friends.

WENIN

I have a bucket list, it’s just for me and in the last two years, God has given opportunity for a few crossings off the list. In face, even last week something happened that means I need to pull out a biro and add a date. One of my ideas has been to take part in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month – National being US), I always have loved writing stories, but November is usually panic month, where I am desperately trying a myriad of ways to get lines to stay in my brain and fully embrace the character I have been given.

This year I have opportunity to fill November differently, but as I researched NANOWRIMO my heart sank. I was not excited by it, and I knew I did not have a desire to create a novel. Yet, I wanted to write. Write Every Night In November (WENIN) became my new goal. Sticking to the word count of the aforementioned (1667 per night) I would attempt to just write. I have no idea where it is going but its a goal and I am gluing myself to it! Little did I know we would enter another Lockdown and I am thankful for this desire to write as I know having a goal and a structure is good for mental health. I am giving leeway – there is no way on a Wednesday night I can complete this, and so like a athlete of the keyboard this is my rest day.

This is not WENIN – I will continue to blog but my writing for November is something else, perhaps only for me, but here is a little sneak of what I wrote today:

This is an adventure, one with a map but not with too much detail. Therefore she will choose to look at it with excitement and without worry. She will embrace the inspiring moments of her day, she will not be drawn to watch endless mindless media. Adventures without detailed maps or routes, need to continually seek communication, employ internal navigation, and make sure of keen observation; that is what she has decided to make room for.

No TV in November

Yep you read that correctly, this is where the panic set in! I became increasingly aware during October, that one major disruption that keeps me from fully achieving my goals is my insatiable appetite for mindless TV.

Whenever I teach on goal setting, I talk about what holds you back from getting that goal. Often it is our own restrictions and habits, it is the small and the movable but also the comfortable. It’s not that I want to be uncomfortable, but comfort can easily become stuck – just watch me get swallowed into sofas!

So I removed it. I have allowed a few exceptions because I don’t this Visual Media in itself is evil! It is just for me an obstacle I need to, in this season, remove rather than spend energy overcoming. I am saying yes to weekend films (post writing), yes to YouTube needed for work or learning, yes to Facebook Lives (within reason) and yes to podcasts. I am however keeping a check on the podcasts and on books, so as not to allow them to become a new distraction; the same reason why my phone social media will remain on timers!

I am excited to see what happens, now I have cleared the way to light the fuse…

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Remember Remember the Gym in November!

My final goal in Novemeber was, until approx. 7.05pm yesterday, to remember to go to the gym. This is all part and parcel of the other two goals. The gym is a positive time filler, that helps my brain focus, empty out the rubbish and contributes to better sleep. I really hoped that since the agreement to keep Merseyside gyms was given last week, it would remain and extend to the nation. It looks like that is not to be.

I have decided to keep the phrase anyway, in the hope that home workouts will once again season my week and that it will help fuel the fire for the words that I write.

Well then…. I think that is enough about me! I’d love to know from you,

1. Have you set any new traditions for this season?

2. Is there anything you feel you need to remove for goals to be scored (doesn’t have to be about productivity)

3. Is there anything you need to add in to fuel your goal?

I’m off to light up my sky, until next time – L

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