Tag Archives: success

THE MEASURE OF MY SUCCESS

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How do you measure success? On  this 17th day of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I am still writing every day.  There are 13 more days to go.  Success in this aspect looks possible and probable.  But what about my other aspirations for this month?

Have I been living according to Don Miguel Ruiz’s FOUR AGREEMENTS?

1.  Be impeccable with your word.

2.  Don’t take anything personally.

3.  Don’t make assumptions.

4.  Always do your best.

It always helps to stop and evaluate your goals and progress. Having a challenge in the framework of this month  helps me to focus.   True, some days are better than others and some posts are more profound than others. Sometimes I can’t help myself and my mouth runs away on me.  Judgement creeps in along with assumptions on difficult days. Some days I am more perfect than others.  But  always, I try to be conscious.  Always, I choose to do the best I can.

Today is one of those not so perfect days.  But it is the best that I could do.  It  is a success.

AIM FOR SUCCESS

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The days are getting shorter and cooler.  It’s harder and harder getting out of bed in the morning.  There is this heaviness in my body and mind.  That is my awareness when I wake up in the morning nowadays.

I did not step out of bed till eight this morning.  But I still did better than the sun.  It did not show its face till nine!  And then it hid itself behind clouds as if saying, Oh no, not today!  I am tired.  Just can’t do it.

Mr. Sun, I know exactly how you feel.  I am feeling YICK!  I don’t feel like getting out of bed, never mind doing anything.  But part of my mind recognizes that it is the time of the hibernation season.  It is too bad that we can’t be like bears and sleep the winter away, curled up warmly in some cave.

We are not bears and we cannot hibernate.  We have to rise and shine somehow, even if only dimly.  I’m remembering that I’m suppose to write a novel in November, 50,000 words in 30 days.  Well, it’s only some 1700 words a day.  What’s the big deal?  Nobody is saying that it has to be a bestseller, or that it even have to be good.  It just have to be written.

Somehow that makes me feel better.  I’m thinking, too, that even if I can’t write 1700 words a day, I could try for a 1000.  That is the goal of this little blog – a thousand and two words a day.  So far that goal have not been reached.  But wait just a cotton picking minute!

I cannot think like that.  I am already setting myself up for failure.  Why not aim to succeed from the word get go?  I WILL not compromise or booby trap myself into failure before I have even started.  How often have I done that to myself?

Look at how far I’ve come so far.  Tenacity is in my genes.  I love words and have been told I have some talent with them.  I have two blogs to show for it.  I can work on imagination.  I just need to get my head out of linear thinking and into possibles.  I CAN.  I CAN.  I CAN.

I am the woman who can!  Alice still lives here.  Now where’s that damn rabbit hole?  I need to fall into it and come out and see what’s on the other side.

ON RETIREMENT SO FAR

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Photo on 2010-11-09 at 20.11It seems surprising to me that when so many of us look towards ‘retirement’ as an answer to everything, a lot of us are also so afraid of it.

My hairdresser thought I was too young and worried for me.  She liked being at work more than being at home.

She is not alone.  Many of us enjoy being at work more.  We cry for freedom but we also love having schedules made for us.  We know exactly what we are suppose to be doing all day long, including when we eat.  Freelancing and winging it on your own could be scary.

I was never one of those who counted down to the months, days and hours to being finally free, whatever that means.  I was never one who worry about things to do, places to go, etc.  But.  I did worry about who I was going to be and who had I been all these years.

How am I doing?  Well, I’m in my 3rd month.  I haven’t traveled the whole wide world yet.  I haven’t made a ton of new friends, not even a one, though have met some new people.  I haven’t discovered any new burning desires.  Haven’t won the lottery, or anything.  All this does make me feel somewhat of a ‘failure’ at retirement.  Somehow I feel that one should be out there burning up one’s bridges.

Oh well, I am always bigger in my own mind than I really am!  But I have been getting 8 hours of sleep almost every night.  I am enjoying the lovely autumn on our daily morning bike rides with Sheba.  I am working out my quirks.  I am enjoying life.

Isn’t the sun just lovely this morning?

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INTENTIONS, HABITS AND DISCIPLINE

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Today, I’m reading a new book called INTENTIONS, picked out at the library last week.  I’m quite pleased with the appropriateness of the title for this time of the year.  It is quite an interesting little book that I couldn’t put it down without finding out the outcome.  And so, as usual, I skipped to the end.  And now, I am reading the middle.

Well, I had set no intentions on changing my reading habits and I am still enjoying the story.  I am also reading another book called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.  I am still reading it in the order, page by page.  It is a very interesting account of how habits function, how they can make or break us.  I will put the information to good use.  I will be my own guinea pig.  And we will see if I have enough discipline to follow through and adopt new, healthier habits.

So far, so good!  I was able to put down my book and sit at this keyboard.  It would have been so easy to stay curled under my quilt and just read.  I’m still fighting my sinusitis.  My energy comes and goes and I have to fight inertia constantly.  It would be heavenly if I didn’t have to do anything ever again!

As you can see, I am feeling a little discouraged so that I have to set my intentions early in the day on what I MUST do.  The one thing that is a must is to keep the floors reasonably free of Sheba’s dog hair.  So after breakfast, she gets a rawhide chew while I brush her tail,  undersides and butt.  Then, it’s out with the vacuum.  I’m making progress.  It’s not so hard to get on it.  It’s becoming a habit.  Soon I will be able to do it without thinking and fighting it.

I haven’t done much besides that, though I did load up the dishwasher and push the start button.  I was going to take Sheba to the park, but my body wouldn’t comply.  So when Rod offered to take her out, I let him.  Always accept help when it comes your way.  And having accomplished my most important intention, I feel a sense of success.

HURRAY FOR ME!  Tomorrow is another day, another new beginning.