38 - Plan to Purpose

I feel like I had this 'key' for many years ... and I've dabbled with it often.  However, every time I picked up and made motion to use it in full, I would start with focus and motivation ... and something would come out of the blue, unexpected, and derail my intentions.  I remember once I began the year with clear intention to clean up my computer/digital information.  And, I got my teaching files cleaned (all of them transferred from floppy disks to hard drive - yes, it was that long ago!) and I took my computer for a servicing ... and the entire documentation got destroyed.  Now, why I didn't back it up, I don't know ... perhaps because flash drives had yet to be invented?  Another year, I began the year with grand intentions ... and then illness.  Or job loss.  Or financial crash.  My life seems to be full with attempt, with focus, and then the engine of my life blows up.  And again.  And again.  And yes, I will try again.

A number of years ago, I began to develop a concept for goal planning and achievement.  I got parts done, but never saw 3 consecutive months through.  Over time, I worked on parts and would try again, and last year, when my health took over and then employment changes (to complete loss this year), I set it aside.  Well, for some reason, I have a renewed interest in planning.  Maybe because this break is good?  Time to reflect and review?  I've become a bit obsessed in goal planning, life planning, dayplanners, all things to do with future planning and achievement.  I've been looking at planners online (I don't have the money, but I can look and plan!) - Erin Condren, Passion Planner, Filo-Fax ... and I have yet to find something perfect for me, so I'm starting to entertain the idea of creating my own.  What do I need?  What size works for me?  I'm thinking two - a large binder-size (for the goal plans) and small binder size (for the running day to day plans).  I'm starting to conceptualize it and will likely play with bits and pieces, getting things in place and test-driving it ... until 2016 create the hard copy to pull myself through the year.  And, with all the problems I've had, I guess I should also figure out a contingency plan - for when plans get thrown out the window!! How to deal with that and how to get the train back on the rails.  What I do know is that if done right (and there are many ways to do it 'right'), if one perseveres the plan, adapting accordingly yet keeping the 'North Star' in focus, success is possible.  Achievement is achievable.  Maybe there is blessing in this break.

I'll share more as time goes on.  I guess I wish I would have done this earlier - in my 30s, or earlier.  Maybe things would have turned out more deliberate rather than reactive, which is what the brunt of my life seems to have been.  The good part?  There's still life left!

Gratitude Moments for Today
1/ Today, I'm grateful for getting my rash looked at and now to get the prescription and see if it helps.
2/ Today, I'm grateful for the incredible beautiful day!
3/ Today, I'm grateful for my friendship with PN - I feel terrible about how things turned out but I believe that she will forgive me ... so, I'm grateful for forgiveness!
4/ Today, I'm grateful for the fog that is slowly seeming to clear.  Maybe this is the best way for it to happen.
5/ Today, I'm grateful for the opportunity for an interview on Friday.  I pray that it yields results! and if nothing else, it's excellent practice! (I'd rather have the offer for a min. of a year!) Or ... maybe one of the other resumes I put forth yesterday?? I have faith that a shift is coming ... and for that faith, I am grateful!!

37 - New Way to Look at Life

"Management - In organizations, management is a function that coordinates the efforts of people to accomplish goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.  It includes planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization to accomplish the goal.  Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources."  It's interesting.  I have long thought about life as a 'company', that I am the CEO and COO of my own little company - 'Me, Inc.'  And, from last week, something clicked in me - one of those components is Career Management; and on a sub-category of Career Management is Career Planning. Today, my thought is that maybe in the last 1/2 of my life I can make up for poor management of the first 1/2 of my life! At the same time, I realize that there was much I gained in the middle of poor management - just like I learned from poor managers, so to can I learn from poor management, and even better when it's mine!  We talked about how the education we get following high school sets the foundation for all that comes after, and the best foundation is usually a university degree as it keeps the most number of doors open for you after.  So, what did my degree contribute?  A way of thinking, that is not taught, encouraged and practiced in any of the other forms of higher learning.  I can live with that ... and I can build on that!

Moments of Gratitude for Today
1/ Today, I'm grateful to have made the cut ... out of 400, I was one of 35!  That alone, for me, was much to be grateful for!!!
2/ Today, I'm grateful for spending time with my finances and working on a game-plan when it comes to that area in sore need of management.
3/ Today, I'm grateful for the email from BB (now BR) from high school!!
4/ Today, I'm grateful for some really nice discussions with RA. It's nice to talk to her for a bit when she drives home.
5/ Today, I'm grateful for the small steps towards big goals that I made today. 

36 - Change is in the Air

I have a feeling that change is coming soon.  It will either come through Path A or Path B (or Path-Blind-Side, if Life decides to get creative!).  But it is coming.

Unemployment has given me a luxury ... in this moment, I must choose a path.  I can choose to step on a path like the one I was on, or I can take a leap, a dive, into the unknown. Or .... I can surrender all I've been to give my life somewhere else.  And maybe that leap will be the surrender.  I have made my decision ... with lots of thought and then closing my eyes and speaking my heart.  All paths lead me to leave Alberta, the difference is if it will be sooner or later.  I feel like I've thrown all my balls into the air and right now, there they hover.

Gratitude Moments for Today

1/ Today, I am grateful for being in a position where I can make that choice.
2/ Today, I am grateful for meeting with VG ... again, like so often,  I left realizing that the counsel I gave her is what I need to heed myself.  In this case, focus and persistence.
3/ Today, I am grateful for hearing from RA - I didn't speak to her long, but the little texting was really nice.
4/ Today, I am grateful for PN, and though there is nothing she can do about a position for me now, what she has done so far, the encouragement, the contact, the 'pushing' is so appreciated!
5/ Today, I am grateful for my brother. He is an amazing person.