Reality Check to Your Summer Calendar
Reality Check!
June is half over. Yep, it's true.
Did anyone else blink and find themselves here, wondering how it is possible?
For us in Arizona, that means we are heading into the hottest days on the calendar, easily charting over 110 degrees as we swelter before the life-giving monsoon rains in July and August. So, we try to do EVERYTHING in the morning hours. Exercise. Shopping. Running the kids around. Everything.
My problem is that I need the cooler morning to last twelve hours.
It's true.
I am currently in a 21-day writing challenge with some other authors as I try to put a dent into a future writing proposal. Somehow I imagined that time would mysteriously appear on my calendar once some weekly commitments ended for the summer. Instead, unexpected items appeared taking longer than I planned.
I feel pulled in too many directions--not necessarily from others, but inside myself-- where I dreamed of a slower-paced season.
I don't like it.
If you find yourself in the same spot, may I suggest these three things:
1. Tell yourself the truth about this season and move out of la-la land. Your fairy godmother went to the Bahamas and left you behind. You have to figure out dinner with cranky kids, crowded schedules, and 112 degrees.
2. What changes--additions AND subtractions--do you need to make to correspond with that truth?
3. How can you celebrate small accomplishments as you move toward a larger goal?
This is what it looks like for me. This is my truth.
I am working on a book proposal, figuring out a detailed outline and writing a handful of completed chapters.
What that means: I can't spend 8 hours a day writing--it is not realistic with my other responsibilities. I write best in the early morning hours (see the problem with that in the opening paragraphs). I need to save my most creative brain for that time frame, shifting other things to later in the day. Because I watch a granddaughter two days a week at 7 am, I need to either not write those days, or set an alarm and establish a realistic goal for that time.
If anyone has suggestions for celebrating small accomplishments as you work toward a big goal, I'd love to hear them. Anyone? I'm terrible at it. I just push through one goal to the next.
How about you? What does your summer look like? How are things for you in this season?
And finally, my favorite quote about time management:
There is time every day to do the will of God. - Roy Lessin
Believing that.
Not living like it.
Working on it.
You?
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