Prioritizing the Person I Want To Be

How’s week two of Dark Omicron January 2022?

I’m back to a "taking it day by day" place. No sudden movements. No big plans.

We’ll see what today brings. And, I’ll think about tomorrow…tomorrow.

I’m not much of a resolutions kind of person and yet there are a few things I want to commit to in the new year.

Instead of identifying an end goal that I can check off or a destination I can reach to meet these commitments, I’m experimenting with the James Clear, Atomic Habits, approach. Thinking about the kind of person I want to be and then making the kind of choices that kind of person would make.

Many of you have heard me say that I want to write a memoir or publish a collection of personal essays. Yet, while I write this weekly newsletter, there are no essays and there is no memoir.

Yet.

Putting this big goal out there. This destination of the big ass book of stories that are currently rolling around in my mind, for whatever human reason has not happened. I mean, I haven’t made it happen.

So, with this new experiment, I’m trying on being a writer instead of equating success as the (overwhelming) goal of the completed, published book that could potentially take years to write and edit.

I asked myself, "How would a writer approach this desire?" And I came up with an oh-so-complicated response.

She would write.

She would prioritize a writing practice and do it even when she didn’t want to write or didn’t have anything interesting to say.

So that’s what I’ve been doing since December 24th (but who’s counting). To get into my writing flow, I’ve started a Morning Pages practice every morning. For those unfamiliar with this simple tool from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, you write three full pages in the am…with no intention, with no goal or audience.

Miraculously, when I remove the pressure of the end goal, I allow myself the space to do the damn thing I’ve been wanting to do. I’m loving the quiet, the stillness, and the time to do this energizing thing. Where it will go, I’m not sure. But each day I build confidence, knowing I acknowledged I wanted something and amidst dodging the latest Covid variant…I’m making it a priority.

What kind of person do you want to be?

A learner. A helper. A changemaker.

What choices would you make and what habits would you build if you thought of yourself as that person?

If you’re ready to take the next step in making those shifts, set up some time in a 30-minute complimentary Clarity Call and we can help you get there together.