February Wrap Up

Take a breath. Find a moment of quiet. Revel in your imperfections.

We’re at the end of February, and I’m looking back on my month in light of my intent to feel accomplished. I really like checking on myself monthly to gauge what I’m feeling, what worked, and what didn’t. There are lots of tools out there to help you track stuff like this. Anyone that knows me knows that I am forever going in about 12 directions, and I have found the best way for me to keep my life on track is a paper planner. I have a spread for the month where I have a calendar and my intentions/goals for the month as well as a habit tracker and a monthly wrap up. Today I’m taking peek at my February spread to see how I felt during February.

The first area I wanted to work on was building a morning routine. I gave myself a benchmark of getting dressed, taking my vitamins, and performing general morning ablutions. I did really well on the morning routine bit! Almost every day I got up, got dressed, and performed general morning stuff. This is a HUGE win for me because it really helps me get motivated for the day. The vitamins were really about a 50% rate of success. I hate taking them. I know I need to choose to take them. (Side note: Yes, I am aware that there are a LOT of opinions on taking vitamins. I made this choice in conjunction with my dietician in order to support my own personal recovery process.) The biggest hurdle for me is getting them sorted out so that I have easy access. I’ll keep working on it and hopefully next month is better.

The second area I wanted to deal with was my own workflow. For those of you who don’t know, I work more than one job, and that can feel overwhelming. I love what I do, so this isn’t about being unhappy. It’s a lot to manage, so I struggle with feeling overwhelmed. I feel like I really was able to get a good idea of how my month should flow. I think I have a reasonable spread in my planner to best outline my week. I really feel like this is the area that got the least amount of work. A lot of what I did was to get a lot of the files and documentation I am responsible for organised for the next quarter. I absolutely feel like I’m struggling with motivation, and we’re making some changes in our personal lives that will change how my day flows. In March, I’m hoping to get some really solid time blocks where I designate when I’m going to focus on each job. I’m still figuring out how I want to track that in my planner, but hopefully this will help create a better balance in my day.

The last area I wanted to focus on was building a financial plan. I’m really pleased with my progress in this area! I have a built a better tracking system for regular bills and we have discussed how we want to use the money we have. Things are far from perfect, but I spent a lot of last year kind of coasting along. Having a plan has done wonders for my stress levels and I feel like I have the ability to focus my attention on things that matter to me more. Money is something we need to function in our society, and it’s often a source of stress and contention. By really outlining all the things I was holding in my brain space, I was able to release a lot of the tension. It’s no longer something that I have to constantly think about and that makes my days better.

I really love this way of working with my annual intentions. Last year was rough, and I had a lot to grapple with in January. I am far from feeling totally accomplished in my life, but what matters most to me is that I am taking steps. When you take enough steps, you eventually get to where you want to be. I don’t believe that this intention is something that I will be “done” with at the end of 2021. I think it’s something that I am going to be focusing on for a long time. In years prior I have focused primarily on contentment because I was not content. I really enjoyed sitting with my own contentment in 2020 because it made the feelings of the world burning substantially easier to deal with. I WANT to feel accomplished because it adds to my overall life satisfaction.

It’s important to acknowledge that this is process. I didn’t get anywhere near “completing” the things that I decided to focus on. That’s okay! This intention is something that’s pretty abstract. It’s fluid and changing, and life is still happening. I’m looking for the small wins today. Feeling accomplished is something that is still wrapped up in a lot baggage for me. It brings up old materials with a new face, and I have to figure out how to assimilate all these pieces. I don’t believe that change is something that just happens one day. I believe that it is something that builds slowly over time until you look around and notice that you’re in a different place than you were before. These small accomplishments have given me moments to celebrate. I get to revel in the imperfections. So now, take a breath. Take a moment of quiet. Find the thing you can celebrate. Let’s move forward together.