The trade-off of focusing so intently on a desired future state is that it distracts me from living in the Now. Once I decide something, I want to do it immediately, a trait I no doubt inherited from my parents who seemed to announce intention and execution in the same breath . . .
I am not running away from my life now, I don’t want to, but I need a way to anchor myself to the present and feel excited about shorter-term goals (while continuing to manifest the shit out of plans a few years out). As I talked through these conflicting priorities with my friend Jenna, she gave me a good suggestion and some homework.
The suggestion: Focus on some shorter-term plans that are fulfilling and also play into my future. For me, this is writing.
The homework: Create a three-month timeline and then a one-year timeline around just this one goal. Create something I can display and look at every day, then update every three months.
This particular goal setting concept isn’t alien to me, and talking it out loud with Jenna I realized I already do have some steps lined up for my writing. So this weekend I got a little crafty with it (well, crafty for me) and picked up a few fun patterned stationery papers and a small corkboard at Michael’s.
Listening to Jenna’s new podcast episode, I putzed putting together a fun corkboard and laid out writing goals for the next few months . . . and guessed at writing goals for the next year. It was an exercise in motivation and anticipation that worked well enough considering I spent the time afterward working through plot holes out loud and writing.
I mounted the corkboard in my bedroom, so I can see it every day. Here’s the finished product (Wow, so crafty):
Okay, yeah, it’s just paper and push pins and post-its, but it was relaxing to create. I only get about four crafty bursts a year and this one was well spent.
With Love,
Natalie