First, the Coffee...

Hey peeps, how are you today?

I thought I’d write a New Year’s post to talk about goal setting for the year. I’ve got several rather ambitious goals this year, but they are realistic, as long as I keep myself on track. A number of people I know pick a word for the year, as their focus, whereas I tend to pick phrases rather than single words. But this year I picked concepts.

I actually made myself an equation.

Focus + Vision + Consistent Practice – Eliminate Distractions = Cultivate What Matters

There is a planning system called Power Sheets that uses that phrase: Cultivate What Matters. I haven’t used their system yet, but the phrase speaks to me. I was thinking the other day about how much time that I waste without really thinking about what I’m doing. Now, I’m not saying all social media or playing games is a waste of time, not in the least. But it is a waste of time when you aren’t consciously deciding to use your time in that direction.

And I think there’s another phrase that I am bringing in for the year: Conscious Decision Making.

By this, I mean that I want to use my time consciously. If I want to play a game, I will make the decision to play a game knowing that’s where I’m spending my time. If I want to go on Facebook or Twitter, I will decide how much time I want to spend there, and I’ll set a timer so that I don’t mindlessly waste time, suddenly looking up to find that I’ve spent the past two hours scrolling through other people’s posts, not really paying attention to what I’m doing.

One thing I’ve learned, and I think it has always been true but you don’t realize it until you reach a certain age, (or unless you’ve had a life-threatening situation in your life), is that we only have a finite amount of time here on this planet, in this particular body.

This month, on January 17th, I’ll turn 59 years old. In the past few weeks I’ve suddenly realized I’m no longer in my 30s…or my 40s. I’m in my last year of my 50s. Now, I hope to live a good long life — I’d like to see 85, possibly 90 if I’m in good enough health. But the fact is, whether I feel it or not, and even if I don’t act it or look it, I am almost 60 years old.

While I believe that the soul is immortal, and that energy cannot be destroyed and that we are beings made of energy, the body does wear out. And so does our time on this planet.

So I think I want to live my life consciously. It’s not a fear of death, or of growing old, but I want to make the most of what time I have left, whether it’s one year or ten or thirty.I choose a healthy life

I’ve written a lot of books but there are so many more I want to write. I’ve lived a generally happy life since I was thirty years old, but there are many more years I’d like to live in joy, and so many more things I’d like to do. I don’t want to waste the time that I have left doing things that I’m not really conscious of, if that makes any sense.

So, this year my focus is on my work, as always, and making the most of my life. I want to be as healthy as I can be, I want to feel as good as I can feel, and I want to enjoy life as much as I can.

So that means really thinking about what I’m doing. And if I choose to waste an hour on Facebook, because honestly that’s what I see social media as — a sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant, waste of time — then I will decide to do that in advance. If I choose to play a game, then I will do so fully choosing to spend my time there. Conscious living, to me, means making choices rather than letting life just drag me along with it. It means deciding rather than being decided for.

Long ThoughtsI have also made the decision to spend a year writing every single day. Now I’m not saying I’m going to write my usual amount every day, but I have found that I stay in the world I’m writing in better if I visit it every day. I get in the ‘zone’ better if I write at least something every day. So, I’m setting myself a minimum amount for the days I’m not writing on the books, and those I will blog or journal, or perhaps go back to writing poetry. My main career goal this year is to put something on the page every single day, even if it’s only a few hundred words.

I’ve often said I don’t make resolutions and that’s true. I set goals for the year, some have a high bar and I don’t quite meet them. Others, I achieve. To me a resolution is a pie-in-the-sky wish that usually is left undone. But goals? Goals you can work toward. Goals are more concrete.

So tell me, do you have “words” for this year? Do you have a focus? How about goals? What do you want to see happen in your life in 2020 and how are you going to make it happen? Because things just don’t drop in our lap. Even though I fully believe in the law of attraction, it doesn’t mean saying “I want $1 million” will make it drop in our lap the next day. No, it means saying, “I attract prosperity and abundance,” and then actively working toward supporting that statement through actions and attitude. So, tell me what are your goals?

I wish you the best this coming year, and I hope you find great happiness and joy.

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But First, Coffee: Planning, Goal-Setting, & Conscious Living
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One thought on “But First, Coffee: Planning, Goal-Setting, & Conscious Living

  • 01/02/2020 at 5:57 am
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    Goal: I will care for my health better .

    Happy New Year!

    Reply

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