Our August theme on Wit & Delight is about planting seeds—planning and organizing our lives round values we need to foster, targets we need to meet, and experiences we need to prioritize. In that spirit, I needed to share a have a look at my very own private targets for the rest of 2022.
My private targets for the remainder of the 12 months are all about being actually intentional with my vitality and the choices I’m making for myself.
I hope this submit encourages you to take a second for reflection too. What would you like out of the remainder of your 12 months?
1. Dive again into work with renewed focus.
I’ve a renewed form of vitality for the work I’m doing on Wit & Delight lately and need to put extra of myself into it. My greatest objective is to dive again into work with the identical form of focus I used to be capable of give earlier than I had youngsters. What this implies for me is exhibiting up each day, specializing in precedence tasks, and eradicating extra duties that aren’t as essential.
I do know myself and my work goals lots higher than I used to, and time with our youngsters is a bit more versatile now than it as soon as was. We’re hoping to have an after-school sitter for the youngsters this fall too so I can as soon as once more have a real 9-5 schedule devoted to working.
2. Work *with* my mind—not towards it.
To assist keep away from burnout, I need to proceed to plan my days round how my mind operates finest. I’ve realized my ADHD mind isn’t sometimes glad with delicate or long-term rewards, like checking steady duties off an inventory or engaged on a prolonged undertaking. As a substitute, it seeks out fast dopamine hits, which frequently come within the type of distractions from the work I have to be doing.
As a substitute of preventing so laborious towards this actuality, I’ve tried to plan my schedule in ways in which nonetheless stimulate my mind, constructing in time for selection and artistic duties all through my days and weeks. Having an inherently artistic job helps as a result of I get these dopamine hits from artistic challenges, play, and discovery, that are all part of my job to some extent.
Finally, this shift is about focusing much less on issues I can’t totally management—much less “boiling the ocean”—and extra on the easy act of creating issues, sharing issues, and discovering moments of humor and delight via all of it.
I’m realizing that there’s a lot on the market to take pleasure in once I can differentiate between what’s really essential to me and what’s not.
3. Be actually intentional with money and time.
Wanting again on the previous few months of the spending freeze, I’ve realized that I generally tend to attempt to discover fast fixes for issues. Normally, these fixes come within the type of spending cash or packing my calendar, typically in cases when neither is critical. When finished in extra, each of these items contribute to burnout in my life.
For me, being intentional with money and time means going slower in terms of making selections. It additionally means figuring out that saying sure to a job, exercise, or buy gained’t really feel mentally heavy when it’s “proper” and aligned with my values. As I proceed this course of, there’ll hopefully be extra money and time spent on issues that I really take pleasure in. I’m realizing that there’s a lot on the market to take pleasure in once I can differentiate between what’s really essential to me and what’s not.
All of those targets include one caveat: In instances once I don’t comply with via on them, I gained’t beat myself up for it. I used to suppose that if I beat myself up for any given “failure,” I’d really feel motivated to do higher subsequent time. That form of mindset would solely (unsurprisingly, on reflection) push me additional down right into a spiral. Because it seems, it’s a lot simpler to get again on monitor once I’m not punishing myself for not being excellent.
Kate is at the moment studying to play the Ukulele, a lot to the despair of her husband, youngsters, and canines. Observe her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.
