Day 349
Here we are at day 349 … I have a bit more than two weeks left of this challenge … not that I’m counting or anything. It has been a good exercise for me and let’s just say, a work in progress.
It’s amazing how quickly the time has gone and I look back on all these past days and think, “WOW … a LOT has happened.”
I am in such a different place now than I was then … literally and figuratively.
And yet, there are days … most days … when I think that I got NOTHING done, NOTHING accomplished, DID NOTHING. And I have to remind myself that my to-do lists are never-ending so, of course it always seems like I got nothing DONE because I just keep adding to them!
I have to tell myself, “Chill out, already!”. And sometimes I listen. And, well, sometimes I don’t.
Today I did chill out though, literally. It was 40 degrees out and I went downtown for a meeting and thought I’d wear a light jacket. Um, not a good idea in winter in Chicago … even though today marked the 326th day of no (measurable) snow … it’s still winter! Snow or no snow! In any case … 40 degrees here feels like 12 degrees by Denver standards … so, I learned my lesson and won’t be so cavalier about “warm temps” again!
In these past 349 days I added an extra day to my life (Leap Year day) … I sold my house … I packed 647 boxes … I purged and I moved. I drove cross country – solo w/5 animals. I had a dog and several friends die … along with a portion of my new lawn. I unpacked about 620 of the boxes (the others are in storage), painted nearly the entire house, recarpeted, redid the landscaping, redid just about everything that I could. I said good-bye to my former tutor students and hello to my new one, designed and sold the calendars, ran the business for the 7th year, sold more books, and today I secured a part time job at a massage studio as one of their customer service reps.
And in the midst of all this … I signed up for a 21 day challenge (at www.mylifelist.org) to “figure out my life”. Like I haven’t been busy enough! Today is Day 9 of the challenge … and I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew … or at least figure out … in this short amount of time.
I am finally coming up for air with the house and move and have not started on the 2014 calendars (yet) … so I have a little time to decompress, evaluate, ruminate and veg before the hamster wheel starts calling to me again. One might think I’d like to take it easy … oh no, not me. Let me try to figure out life in 21 days!
And in the middle of all this … my ideal retail space has come available. I am open to it falling into my lap, would welcome it immensely and am actually hoping that is what happens. I’d know then that “it” was meant to be and that “this” was my time to incubate my dog boutique/bakery dreams and give it a try. We shall see.
In any case … 349 days … a LOT has happened and before my posts come full circle I will have finished the 21 day challenge … and hopefully will have figured out my life … and so much more.
Sometimes we don’t give ourselves credit for what we accomplish because we don’t slow down and look at the big picture. Small steps are being taken every day. Some days seem really slow … but I know I’m moving forward.
Let’s just say I’m a work in progress.