Planner/Success Tracker

I had a hard time deciding what sort of system I wanted.  I decided that updating a single blog post would be too hard to follow.  Separate posts might be a better option, but I strongly suspect that I wouldn't make a post for just one small thing and would therefore miss recording many successes.  I worked in a composition book for a few days last week, but was not in love with the paper.  Ballpoint pens were necessary to avoid bleedthrough, and I am not a fan of ballpoint pens.  Sooooo, I got a journal with a travel themed cover at Target.  It will handle liquid pens, but unfortunately not Sharpies.

Three days in, I'm enjoying it.  A few notes of explanation for the curious --

• yes, there is an actual schedule under the sticky note.  i just covered it before scanning for privacy's sake.
• if you're familiar with The Awe-Manac by Jill Badonsky, you'll see familiar elements -- naming the day, the "today i get to" list, and journal juju
• i'm keeping track of my "try something new" assignment with the adventures list.
• i did pick up the funky shui chair yesterday, which could go on my success list and my adventure list actually.  i'm really bad at allowing myself to have things i want.
• funky shui is a term from a fantastic book (whose author i'll have to edit in later).  it's about decorating around the things you love rather than hiding them away or not bringing them home in the first place.  for example, if you see a suit of armor at a flea market and want it but think "where would i put it???" take it home and decorate around it.  if you love a suit of armor, you probably love other medieval themed things too, so just go with it.  or, if you collect pez dispensers, don't hide them away.  come up with a great way to display them. 

Next project -- making sure my dreams make it onto my "today i get to" lists on a regular basis.

Creative Visioning Map

I tried the list method first, but it wasn't really working for me.  Therefore, I decided to treat myself to the ebook as an early birthday present to myself.  I'm glad I did!  The map is much more inspiring :)

It still feels very much "in progress" (as evidenced by the fact that I stopped in the middle of this sentence to add something else!), but the page is getting full.

I added a few elements that weren't on the assignment but that the map seemed to need:  1) arrows that show relationships between the areas (for example, I drew an arrow from "sacred home" to "extreme self-care" because having a peaceful, organized space will make it easier to do things like cook delicious, healthy meals and make and use my own lotions and face masks and such)  2) "yellow brick roads" from where I am to where I want to be (these are more to do list oriented than feelings oriented)  and 3) a "keys" list to go along with the "bridges" list (again, these are more to do type things).

Dreams Come True/Success List

I've had a huge amount of trouble with this list -- mostly because if an achievement was someone else's goal for me, I don't feel it belongs on this list.  Since I'm someone with a big people pleasing problem, that makes a HUGE dent in the potential list.

Anyway,  here is what I have so far:

• I survived my childhood.
• I kept the real me alive by hiding her away until I could create a safe environment for her to begin to emerge.
• Even though I was steamrolled into going to college, I did at least have the courage to major in literature and the self-knowledge to stay out of pre-med, like my mom was pushing hard for.
• I married the man my mother warned me about (still happily married almost 20 years later AND she finally admitted that I did the right thing)
• I got that crazy spiky haircut in jr high and didn't let all the shocked expressions and comments stop me from gelling it into a porcupine every day.
• I got the wrinkled, asymmetrical jacket and kept wearing it despite all the offers to teach me how to iron.
• I am following my instincts and working toward healing my thyroid naturally rather than agreeing to treatment that feels wrong to me.
• Step One -- I'm past the physical addiction stage of kicking my Mountain Dew habit ( 2-3 20oz bottles a day).  And I've stopped drinking orange soda.  (both contain brominated vegetable oil)
• I've built a good basic library of herb books.
• Attempted a container garden this past spring.
• Had great luck growing garlic at mom's house.
• Created Penelope (a piece of art -- I'll post her picture.  I'll have to take one first.  The only one I have is on my phone.)

• Had several of my own photos printed, framed them, and hung them in the living room.
• Got out of a job that was destructive for me.
• Got out of a spiritual community that was destructive for me.
• Stopped letting social norms dictate my decorating (gargoyles.  not just for halloween anymore. also using a black halloween tree as a "happy everything" tree.  when i put up christmas decorations, i took off some --not all-- of the halloween ornaments and added some silver christmas tree balls along with the skeletons.  now the skeletons have been joined by hearts for valentine's day.  i hope to find shamrocks for st. patrick's day.)

Half of these have been in the past year.

Sunday List of Dreams

I've retitled my Big List of Dreams because I started a list after reading Kris Radish's novel called The Sunday List of Dreams.  My list is far from complete today (50 items so far), but I'll add to it as we go, dating each addition.

Some categories have been easier than others so far. 

Original List

• Create a home that supports my soul.
• Heal.
• Dive into the wreck.
• Give myself a makeover.
• Figure out what in Olympus I want to do when I grow up.
• Get a tattoo.
• Eggs Benedict???

Health

• Find my happy weight.
• Find healthy recipes that Drew and I both like.
• Move toward eating local, organic food, including some that I grow myself.
• Find exercise that I enjoy enough to do it regularly.
• Move toward natural methods of healing.
• Big Dream -- herb school.  Or maybe aromatherapy school.  Something like that.
• Design and plant an herb garden.
• Find ways to work garlic into my diet on a daily basis.
• Start back on Clear Energy.
• Work toward following lifestyle recs for thyroid issue.

Relationships

• More romance.
• Work on being more open/less secretive.
• We've declared 2010 The Year of Us -- get more specific about what that means to us.
• Go away for a long weekend for our 20th anniversary in March. DONE
• Take a real vacation together this summer.

• Rebuild my support system, both online and IRL.
• Check out the new moon women's group in town.

Creativity/Purpose

• Feel creative.
• Put regular art time on my schedule.
• Dust off deecorating notebook.
• Figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life.
• JOURNAL.
• Photography.

Abundance

• Enough money to pay bills on time and without stress.
• Adequate savings.
• Adequate retirement investment.
• Ability to buy things for myself without feeling guilty (this is a thought issue as much as a $ issue).
• Get serious about couponing and bargain hunting to redirect dollars from boring parts of the budget to more enjoyable areas.
• Cancel (and stop paying for!) services we aren't using.
• Be able to take weekend trips and vacations when we want.
• Get some decent furniture.
• Do those "win a shopping spree" surveys at the bottom of store receipts.
• Have more sources of income than just our day jobs.
• Teach my brain to recognize more possibilities.

Self-Love/Self-Care

• Build a wardrobe that makes me look and feel amazing.
• Do a better job of keeping up with personal maintenance (haircuts and color, manis and pedis, etc).
• Schedule a home spa day once a month.
• Experiment with making my own scrubs and lotions and such. Made fingernail oil.

Happiness/Adventure

• Fill my Big Book of Happy this year (this is an altered book project.  so far I have the cover done).
• Equip my office for Joy Breaks, and schedule them several times a day.
• Get started on Project ABH (anywhere but here -- Drew and I want to move to another part of the country, probably the Pacific Northwest, within the next several years).
• Try new things this year!
• Creating Dreams Come True will be a BIG adventure for me!

I also plan to add reading lists and links to websites where appropriate.  I know some of the entries make sense only to me.  Many of them will probably eventually have their own blog entries, but feel free to ask me about anything you are particularly curious about.  :)

Dreams Borrowed from or Inspired by Other Participants' Lists

• Go to England, Scotland, Ireland
• Go to Greece
• Learn to make my own chai
• Stencil my walls to look like a crumbling castle
• Learn a bit of simple sewing -- enough for pillows and curtains and such
• Get the red and black dishes
• Practice ground/center/shield until it is habitual
• Find more Gregorian chant CDs
• Have either a windchime or some other wonderful dangling thing in each corner
• Get going on the gratitude project that has been floating around in my head for years
• Find our more about Soul Collage cards
• Explore possibilities for new sources of income
• Take at least one of Nicolette's creative lettering/doodling classes (nickieblog.blogspot.com)
• Switch to natural beauty products (mineral makeup, etc)
• Develop a spiritual practice
• Find a spiritual community (may have to be online, but the new moon group may work)
• Find more quirky clothes
• Find out what "new thought" is
• Watch Food, Inc 
• Watch The Future of Food
• Drink as much Fiji water and Naked Juice as I want w/o worrying about how much it costs
• Either figure out how to make my day job less soul-sucking OR figure out an alternative
• Find ways to incorporate my reading on creativity into my day job
• Pedagogy reading
• Turn one room into a creative space
• Create a sanctuary within my home
• Live in a sustainable community surrounded by wonderful, supportive, creative people
• Fill my home and my days with people, activities, and things I love
• Take 10 found items and create a character from them
• Win a zillion dollars
• Make a Kiva loan -- preferably to a woman who is either doing something creative or wanting to buy a few goats or something
• Research possibilities for landscaping our "problem" lot (bog plants for the area that stays so squishy?)
• Try to remember the positive parts of my childhood
• Go back to Eureka -- Take more gargoyle pics Done, although we weren't able to find many new ones.
• Take more cemetery art pics
• Find the wonderful things that exist where I live now.  Don't wait until we can move to have a great life
• Teach the people at my day job how to treat me
• Get feng shui/space clearing training
• Figure out which fancy salad greens I love and find the perfect recipe for bread for veggie sandwiches
• Get a bra fitting by a real pro, not "just a salesperson"
• Go to the theatre more often
• Make a dream board
• Send a postcard to Post Secret
• Learn to cook Greek food
• Learn kitchen witchery skills
• Visit Jim Morrison's grave
• Visit Edgar Allan Poe's grave
• Get a mini greenhouse so I can have herbs and veggies year round
• Grow mushrooms
• Sprout
• Plant lots of pots of cat grass
• Once the cat gets used to munching those, try reintroducing other house plants
• Have a huge, beautiful palm tree and learn to care for it properly
• Learn to make yogurt
• Get a kombucha mother
• Play with paperdolls
• Learn to my hair and makeup better
• Create soothing rituals
• Learn basic GIMP skills
• Get the Goddess Guidebook
• Creative Goddess e-course for my birthday?
• Kick Mountain Dew DONE
• So Solution Journals & Feelings Letters
• Burn them each new moon
• Switch to natural cleaners -- experiment with using baking soda, vinegar, essential oils, etc
• Actually USE the art supplies I have
• Focus more on my own goals and less on pressure from outside sources
• Make IRL friends who are actually supportive
• Go to Bali
• Make something wonderful with all the broken bits I've been collecting
• Find out which herbs will grow well indoors
• Send and receive more real mail
• Master the learning curve on the Diva Cup
• Find pretty reusable shopping bags  DONE
• Make my own greeting cards, esp for Halloween and Christmas
• Find time to read for pleasure
• Do a full cleansing/blessing of the house
• Learn to enjoy herbal tea
• Set up an altar
• Be more like the cat.
• Organize brain.  Stat.
• Attract butterflies, lady bugs, dragonflies, and fairies to my garden (added 1/13)
• Make peace with toads and lizards
• Pet a snake on the head -- a friendly one in a pet shop or someone's home, NOT some random stranger snake in the backyard!
• Take a photography class with Drew
• Learn to bead my own necklaces so I can have just what I want