Ready to change your life? Okay, maybe not totally change your life but introduce a little more joy, a lot more spice and an overall sense of well-being.
Super life-coachy of me to say but is life happening to you or are you making your life happen? Do you spend the day focused or in a constant state of reacting?
Being mindful of tiny acts of accomplishments can have a huge impact on your day. In fact, I think taking that mindfulness and doing just handful of little things every single day will change your life. What are these things? These are the No-Ifs-Ands-or-Buts-About-It things.
Fellow creative peeps out there understand the ADD struggle is real. If we don’t set the intention for our day before we even climb out of bed, the day gets away from us. Too often we have unrealistic expectations of all the things we’re going to accomplish when the fact is, no- we won’t do six loads of laundry, send twenty emails, bake a cake for the neighbor, pick up dog poop, meditate for 45 minutes all while staying off the damn Gram. How many times have you gone to bed thinking “what on earth did I get done today?”. But in keeping my mantra of “memories aren’t made from to-do lists” at heart (that quote is suppose be in Rebekah Lyon’s new book called Rhythms of Renewal!!), what would happen if you just did maybe five things every day. No matter what. Yes, you will change your life.
These five things need not be elaborate or unrealistic- the whole point is achieve the nirvana of “I ate seven Oreos BUT I drank three glasses of water so I didn’t entirely suck” today.
What’s an example of a Daily Life List? Everyone is different but here are some ideas-
- Make your bed
- Read something NOT on a screen for at least thirty minutes
- Drink three glasses of water (yes, just three ….because if you have an issue with not drinking enough water I bet you’ll bump that number up in no time. Maybe don’t chase your Oreos with water though…wine, specifically red wine pairs well with O-R-E-O’s)
- Offer someone a genuine compliment
- Write down five things you’re grateful for
Need some more?
- Spend 20 minutes cleaning the kitchen
- Meditate for ten minutes
- Eat two servings of veggies
- Smile at a stranger (watch this one, sometimes that can backfire. It’s best to choose the over 60 crowd)
- Go for a ten minute walk
- Journal for five minutes
- Do fifty lunges or squats or crunches
- Enjoy the early morning sun on your face for ten minutes (this helps with sleep- see more on that here)
- Spend ten minutes in prayer
- Start every morning stretching for ten minutes
How do you know if the task makes the list?
It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. If you cannot fathom doing it after a rough day, scratch it from your list. These things should be nearly effortless. Once you have your list, write it down and post it somewhere. Maybe on a sticky note on your calendar or planner. Maybe a sticky note on your bathroom mirror. These things should be so easy you’re a tad bit embarrassed if someone saw your list. They’d be like “geez Betty, kind of setting the bar real low….drink three glasses of water?” by which you can reply “yeah Frank, have you had any water today?”…mic drop.
I know these things seem comically easy, but the goal is take this sense of accomplishment and run with it. The goal is not to beat yourself up with thoughts like “welp, totally blew it today…better try harder tomorrow” because we all know tomorrow will be the same as today. We like to cram our to-do lists with a bunch of crap we know we can’t accomplish.
But a list is nothing without actually doing the things on the list. Sometimes we fall into the trap of feeling accomplished because we sat down and made a list.
A list with no action is like watching a workout video while you sit on the couch.
Trust me, I’ve done this before.
Go out there and change your life. It’s going to be a spectacularly pat-yourself-on-the-back day ….every day.
Find the ‘Enjoy The Little Things’ hand-lettered journal at www.aedriel.com/shop or here.
And if you need a little mojo to form better habits- a great read can be found here.