Why You Shouldn’t Wait To Feel Ready Before You Go For Your Goals
Category: Personal growth
Why It’s Good To Be Spontaneous Some Of The Time
Let’s face it, playing in the grownup sandbox requires a certain amount of planning. Being organized helps you maintain your responsibilities, accomplish your goals, and relieve stress in your life so it makes perfect sense to stick to a schedule. However, living a life wrapped around a tightly planned scheduled with little room for flexibility can actually begin to steal your joy and cause stress in your life.
While organization has its place, so does being spontaneous when it comes to living a balanced life. A little spontaneity in your life is good for your mind, body, and soul no matter what type of personality you have. It’s really important for our health and well being that we all learn to go with the flow from time to time.
My husband and I recently moved back to the California Coast and the weather can change from day to day which means great weather can show up on a work day. On the days that we have “beautiful weather” we do our best to pack a blanket and some wine and head over to the beach even if it’s only for an hour. Sometimes these outings are planned, other times they are last-minute decisions. When these moments are spontaneous, they can feel more adventurous and we come back feeling refreshed and less confined by our adult schedules. I’ve noticed that by being adaptable in my personal life, it helps me to be more relaxed when it comes to more business-related issues. You get really good at behaviors that you continue to practice. 🙂
Spontaneous moments can be as big or as small as you want them to be. They can be as simple as taking a moment to have a cup of coffee at your favorite cafe, sitting outside on your balcony watching a sunset, making a nice cheese plate and having a glass wine alone or with others, or as grand as taking a last-minute vacation. One of my favorite spontaneous moments at our house is when my husband suggests we go out to dinner after a long week. It’s amazing how taking a break from cooking and stepping away from all of our responsibilities for just a few hours can be so refreshing.
Ways You Can Be Spontaneous
In today’s fast-paced world, it can be very difficult to be spontaneous so one of the things I like to recommend is planned spontaneity. When you plan your spontaneity, you set aside time to do something like take a drive, go to the park, play with your kids, have an indoor picnic, ride your bike, take your dog for a walk on a different street, or eat out. The spontaneous part is that not every little detail of whatever you decide to do is planned and there are no tight schedules.
It’s important to be responsible and to work toward your goals. It’s also important to have fun and to be adventurous. Some of the most precious memories you will create may end up being a result of moments when you were willing to be flexible and spontaneous.
Here’s to a fun, productive, and adventurous week!
Shared with love,
Jennifer
It’s Time To Stop Beating Yourself Up And Give Yourself A Break
If you have been following me for the past few months, you may know that my husband and I recently moved with our three dogs. We placed the majority of our belongings in PODS and downsized from a thirteen hundred square foot home to a six hundred square foot temporary rental while we sell our house. Our temporary housing is a block and a half away from the beach so it was totally worth it to move into a “tiny” house.
I’m happy to say that the five of us are settling in to our new environment and I’m starting to get a routine down.
Moving is a major transition that can interrupt many areas of your life so I decided to be realistic about the expectations I was going to place on myself during this time. All was going well on the “grace” front until the voices in my head showed up. Maybe you are familiar with them. The voices that whisper to you what you “should” be doing, or that you are failing, or a big slacker. Yeah, those.
It’s always a good idea to write your goals down and to set dates when you’d like to see them accomplished so I had laid out everything the way I wanted life to look like by this time this month on paper. It turns out I was being a bit ambitious even though I thought I was being realistic. There were several things I hadn’t factored in to my day like multiple dog walks now that we don’t have a fence, organizing a “tiny” house, and traveling longer distances to run errands.
Give Yourself A Break
Fortunately, as a coach, I walk people through the process of “giving yourself a break” quite often so I was able to recognize those ugly voices in my head. I took a step back and listened to the still small voice that was reminding me that we just moved, I’ve been managing the sale of our house, maintaining my business, taking care of our animals without a secure fence, and figuring out where to buy groceries. Considering what’s on my plate, things are actually going pretty well. We only had one dog disappear for ten minutes (totally terrifying), we are eating home cooked meals, I’ve organized all our clothes, I’m still writing this blog, and we are getting outdoors everyday and enjoying this season in our life. Turns out I’m not a slacker after all.
While most of us know that perfection is totally overrated and none of us can be at the top of our game all of the time, the voices in our head still like to show up and mess with us. Comparison can kick in and we can run through the list of things we “should” be doing and the areas we think or maybe know we have failed in. Beating yourself up is not just emotionally draining. It can kill your joy, your creativity, and your productivity.
It’s important that we work hard and set goals. It’s also important that we remind ourselves that we only have so many awake hours in the day and that different seasons will produce different results.
If you are in a transition right now or starting something new, I encourage you to walk toward your destiny with a flexible calendar and to be kind to yourself.
Here’s a short Facebook Live post I did last week to help encourage you!
Shared with love,
Jennifer