Living Intentionally 2017 – 02

Weekly Intention: As we go into the first full week of 2017, I expect this week to be hectic and busy. My Mondays are always the toughest because my meetings start at 9am and don’t end until 10pm. So by the end of the day, I’m already wiped enough for multiple days. Wednesdays are like that, too, but then my Thursdays and Fridays tend to be quieter so Wednesday feels more hopeful. This Monday comes with the extra challenge of a dentist’s appointment and also Nathaniel will be home since he has a fever of 100.6 at the moment. So we’ll see how juggling all this works. I have a few more work items that I feel compelled to get done this week. Most noticeably my unread email is still at multiple hundreds so my intention with that this week is to either read it all or declare email bankruptcy and move on. I don’t want all the email hanging on my conscience all week. I learned last week that when I am rushing or harried, I tend to make a lot more mistakes and I tend to be much unkinder to my loved ones. So my intention this week is to slow down all the moments in between. If I am packing lunches during a meeting, so be it, but I don’t have to rush. Everything can wait, even when it doesn’t seem so. Let’s see if I can remember that.

This month’s intention is: Rise and Shine. Hit the ground running.

Ways to Shine this week:

• One: Bold: Skipping some meetings so I can go to Book Club this week.
• Two: Open: Setting up a few personal meetings for mentoring/coaching at work.
• Three: Heal/Nourish: Continuing to choose to nourish myself. Oh and, going to the dentist 🙂 And getting my hair done!

I am looking forward to: a long weekend this weekend. i love long weekends.
This week’s challenges: a lot of meetings this week. i am hoping nathaniel won’t get sicker. and the email, oh the email.
Top Goals:

• Work: start creating weekly summaries, see if I can pull it together.
• Personal:  stay on the wagon with my new routine. make a list of personal goals and projects.
• Family: create some routine for Nathaniel and math. (i haven’t done this yet so let’s give it one more week.)

I will focus on my core desires (bold, mindful, nourish, love) by:  trying to stay in this present moment. slowing down and picking only the most important things to work on. Listening and responding and not jumping in. Staying calm. I’ll try to focus extra hard on the equanimity this week. Let’s see where I get.
This week, I will say yes to: getting the most important work done (and identifying what that is!)
This week, I will say no to: doing all the urgent-seeming-but-unnecessary work. (not just at work but also at home.)
I am worried that: i will not make time for my kids and for myself. i feel like once the week starts it’s a marathon of just going through all the motions. drop off to school, exercise/journal, meetings, meetings, meetings, pick up from school, make lunches, make dinner, meetings, meetings, meetings, sleep. That’s pretty much my life. Even if it’s in 20-minute pockets, I want to make time there for myself (and I am now doing this a bit with the journaling) and for Nathaniel and for David. Not time to say “do your homework, practice your instrument, brush your teeth” but time to connect. Time to show them my love. Time to really listen.
This week, I want to remember: that this is my life. I can choose how it goes. i can choose what upsets me.  i can choose what I will worry about. I can choose how I show up in the world. Every day. Every moment. And each time, I get to start from scratch and try again.

Here’s to a great week!