To-do Lists
A couple of fun facts about me:
1. I love making to-do lists.
2. I am overly obsessed with my calendar and keeping a schedule.
3. I keep a paper planner for daily to-do lists, but it keeps absolutely none of my actual appointments 😂 (those live in my digital calendar). It is called a Passion Planner (if you like planners, you probably need a Passion Planner... check them out and don't be afraid to use my email below as your referral). And the Passion Planner has saved me (well my career, my mom life, and my health).
4. My new therapist taught me a new way of making to-do lists to retrain my thoughts. Yes, I see a therapist. And yes, to-do lists are helping me learn how to think. I have no shame in admitting that counseling is a blessing and that mental health professionals are gems, especially those who are pastoral counselors... double bonus.
Back to my to-do lists. A number of years ago, I admitted to myself that I just sucked at remembering things. I had moments where I thought maybe I was lazy or just didn't pay attention like I should have, but as time would tell, my neurologist shared that my history of seizures had kind altered my brains capacity to maintain certain periods of memories. But this post is not about my memory or seizures.
While in this season of exploring potential and growth, I starting making my personal and professional to-do lists. As I put my pen down from writing one of my Sunday night to-do lists to prepare for my week, I laughed out loud when I realized that I actually eye rolled AT myself. My to-do lists were becoming these BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) and I realized that a lot of the stress that I had been feeling was this unnecessary stress I self imposed. These goals and to-do lists were/are awesome. They are DREAMS. They exist in the right now. They exist in the 3, 5 and 10 years from now. They seem attainable, yet so far away.
As a firm believer of vision boards, as demonstrated by my annual January vision board party, I did not think anything was out of the norm by my constant goal/to-list writing and rewriting methods. But that moment when I realized that I was putting these awesomely crazy things in my head that I HAD to do NOW.... was when I realized I was acting like a lunatic in a way.
A week passed, I continued with my maddening method, and I approached my weekend at Create and Cultivate. There they had all these fantastic installations where people could engage in an activity that was encouraging, limit pushing, or just new to them. Hats off to Microsoft for creating my most favorite one. By writing on a piece of glass the thing that was holding you back from your dreams, you then were given permission to shatter that glass in the installation they had built. You know, like shattering your glass ceiling. The video below demonstrates that exercise for me. It was INCREDIBLE! Disclaimer: I am keeping my glass ceiling to myself for now. That can be a later post.
But what was revealed to me through this process, was that while I am a list writer, goal setter, and dreamer. There is nothing too big or awesome I can't achieve. And though I might drive myself mad at times and anxiously re-do my lists to try to time manage better, it is all in the hopes that one day, I WILL achieve some of those BHAGs. The learning curve I had, was that nothing needs to happen right now, God's plan is always revealed in time but the grace you can give yourself to stay focused on productivity, passion, and choice to pursue your dreams, is such a gift in light of the constant desire to achieve these BHAGs and/or to cross off all of the things on your to do list.
Passion Planner referral email: tauna.shoemaker@yahoo.com
1. I love making to-do lists.
2. I am overly obsessed with my calendar and keeping a schedule.
3. I keep a paper planner for daily to-do lists, but it keeps absolutely none of my actual appointments 😂 (those live in my digital calendar). It is called a Passion Planner (if you like planners, you probably need a Passion Planner... check them out and don't be afraid to use my email below as your referral). And the Passion Planner has saved me (well my career, my mom life, and my health).
4. My new therapist taught me a new way of making to-do lists to retrain my thoughts. Yes, I see a therapist. And yes, to-do lists are helping me learn how to think. I have no shame in admitting that counseling is a blessing and that mental health professionals are gems, especially those who are pastoral counselors... double bonus.
Back to my to-do lists. A number of years ago, I admitted to myself that I just sucked at remembering things. I had moments where I thought maybe I was lazy or just didn't pay attention like I should have, but as time would tell, my neurologist shared that my history of seizures had kind altered my brains capacity to maintain certain periods of memories. But this post is not about my memory or seizures.
While in this season of exploring potential and growth, I starting making my personal and professional to-do lists. As I put my pen down from writing one of my Sunday night to-do lists to prepare for my week, I laughed out loud when I realized that I actually eye rolled AT myself. My to-do lists were becoming these BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals) and I realized that a lot of the stress that I had been feeling was this unnecessary stress I self imposed. These goals and to-do lists were/are awesome. They are DREAMS. They exist in the right now. They exist in the 3, 5 and 10 years from now. They seem attainable, yet so far away.
As a firm believer of vision boards, as demonstrated by my annual January vision board party, I did not think anything was out of the norm by my constant goal/to-list writing and rewriting methods. But that moment when I realized that I was putting these awesomely crazy things in my head that I HAD to do NOW.... was when I realized I was acting like a lunatic in a way.
A week passed, I continued with my maddening method, and I approached my weekend at Create and Cultivate. There they had all these fantastic installations where people could engage in an activity that was encouraging, limit pushing, or just new to them. Hats off to Microsoft for creating my most favorite one. By writing on a piece of glass the thing that was holding you back from your dreams, you then were given permission to shatter that glass in the installation they had built. You know, like shattering your glass ceiling. The video below demonstrates that exercise for me. It was INCREDIBLE! Disclaimer: I am keeping my glass ceiling to myself for now. That can be a later post.
But what was revealed to me through this process, was that while I am a list writer, goal setter, and dreamer. There is nothing too big or awesome I can't achieve. And though I might drive myself mad at times and anxiously re-do my lists to try to time manage better, it is all in the hopes that one day, I WILL achieve some of those BHAGs. The learning curve I had, was that nothing needs to happen right now, God's plan is always revealed in time but the grace you can give yourself to stay focused on productivity, passion, and choice to pursue your dreams, is such a gift in light of the constant desire to achieve these BHAGs and/or to cross off all of the things on your to do list.
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