January 14^th: A Day Well Spent

I started reading “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron recently- for those that don’t know, it’s supposed to be this really great guide to unblocking your creativity and helping you get down to business artistically. I’ve been wanting to check it out for a while, so now I am. Anyway, I am just starting out with it, but one of the things you have to do is write three full pages every morning, by hand. Just…anything that comes up. I promised myself that I would not half-ass things that I really wanted to do, so…even though it seemed like a lot, I did it. Lacking in ideas, I wrote all of the things I wanted to get done that day (along with a bunch of other stuff, as it was THREE FULL PAGES)

Well, to my utter shock, I had the most productive day I’ve had in WEEKS yesterday. I mean, I accomplished almost every single thing I wrote down. It was crazy. I’m not quite ready to credit the writing as the reason yet, but just in case, I went ahead and did it again today. This time I added writing to the list since that was the one thing I left off yesterday, oddly enough.

Anyway, I realized something about myself yesterday that might be rather important. I have mastered a quiet, subtle form of self-sabotage that works very effectively. I think when I should be doing. I do it all the time- sit here, immobilized by thoughts about all of the things I should be doing, when I could just get up and start doing them. I caught myself doing it right when I got off work yesterday, thinking about whether or not I should get up and take the dog to the beach like I wanted to when it hit me- I had already decided to do that hours and hours ago. What I was really doing was trying to think my way out of it. If I sat there thinking for much longer, it was going to get dark, and then I’d have to stay home which is what a part of me really wanted. When that realization crossed my mind, I jumped up, grabbed the dog, and headed out the door.

And you know what? It was a wonderful evening for a walk on the beach. The tide was way out, and we made it just in time to catch the sunset. When I got home, I fixed dinner, changed my sheets (another thing I’ve been thinking about instead of doing for over a week now!) and got ready to settle down. I kept thinking about what a wonderful day I had. It felt so good to have accomplished so many of the things I set out to do. I read to Camryn for a while, then burrowed down into my flannel sheets and slept soundly.

There is something to be said for a day well spent, don’t you think? And I know that there will be days when things just don’t work out, but I would rather not be the number one roadblock in my own life, you know? Having good intentions is great but committing yourself seems to work a lot better. Writing things down seems to up the chances of success quite a bit. I’m ready to see where this goes.

Want to experiment with me? Today, try it out. Write down the things you want to accomplish and commit yourself to doing them. When you catch yourself trying to think your way out of it, remember that you already made up your mind and stop thinking, start doing. I want to see if it works for you, too! Whatever you decide, I hope you have a wonderful day. I’ll be back on Thursday.