The No Excuses Project: The imperfect garden
March 10, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
Although I have a secret yearning for a lush and perfect cottage garden like the kind you see on estate travel shows I also know that’s requires more patience than anything else. At the same time there is weeding, fertilizing and pruning that needs to happen to get it there. Getting the bare minimum done happens but along with that I discover that I’ve been using excuses to avoid doing more – every time I think a task will take four or five hours I find that I’ve accomplished most of it inside an hour. How much more would happen if I estimated the task accurately? Even though my garden isn’t critical to work or love I consider it a key part of my home environment – a messy garden is no different than leaving clothes on the floor. It’s unsettling and leaves me feeling critical of myself. It should be something that is joyful, not guilt inducing.
Most definitely my number one excuse is ‘it will take a long time’ followed by the timing isn’t right – usually because it’s raining or I will need to clean up to go somewhere later. Not a long list of excuses but powerful ones in my personal arsenal.
Next week – the strategy to being a better caretaker
Holding Myself Accountable
So how is it working? I think I’m doing a little better:
- Photography – I’ve got a rough draft of my first book essay, which is 600 more words than existed last week
- Weight & Exercise – while I haven’t fit in the exercise consistently I’ve done some and I’ve got the month’s food prepped in the freezer. Now that meals are just a microwave away I should free up that 30 minutes in the evening for moving
Self promotion for the inherently shy
March 9, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Pursuit of Happiness
It’s possible to be both extroverted and shy, or just shy in person but not in email – there are all kinds of combinations. Shyness isn’t something necessarily to overcome, the usual advice of the non-shy to those afflicted but neither is it a good excuse to do nothing. Self promotion seems to just keep getting more and more important as the world gets larger through all the points of connection. If you have been challenged with this lately, here’s some suggestions that just might help move your goals forward.
Simplicity
March 8, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Visual Meditation of the Week
There’s nothing really all that fancy about a snowdrop; just two colors (white and green) and three petals and yet it manages to be utterly elegant. If you reduced your life to this level of simplicity, what would it look like?
Snowdrop, Juliet Chase, all rights reserved
A week of preparation
March 5, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Juliet's Journal
Once again I’ve doing a lot of ‘getting ready.’ There are times when I wonder if I do too much of this and I’m sure there are. The two big things this week are to be ready for my meeting with the museum gift shop next week and to have a schedule together for getting everything done in two hours a day. I figured out after a few days that unless I had a clear assignment and knew what I needed to have prepped for each hour I was going to dither it away in finding inspiration. I think I’ve got that realistically defined and my jewelry is laid out in velvet-lined display trays.
I’ve also edited down all my photos of Yellowstone into the top 10 – just have to write the essay now!
On the personal front I’ve got meals planned for the next month and will spend tomorrow shopping and cooking to get all that in the freezer. I’ve also spent some time analyzing the difference between wanting something to happen out of desperation, the ’shoulds’ or because you feel it’s the best solution. I’ve noticed that things happen much faster and with better results with the latter so I’ve put some thought into how to reapply that elsewhere. When it’s coherent in my own mind I just may make a post out of it…
Next week is all about cementing the new routine and getting as much knowledge, if not sales, from my jewelry meeting. Not to mention, figuring out what to wear!
The No Excuses Project: moving past the excuses on weight
March 3, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
So what am I going to do about all the excuses and constraints on getting more exercise? Like photography, I’m simply going to set my sights a lot lower. Instead of the 2.5 hours a day I know it took in the past, I’m going to commit to 30 minutes every day. Nothing fancy but I’ve got a treadmill, a hula hoop, weights, and the neighborhood. Between those I should be able to keep myself occupied and moving.
I’m also not going to ‘diet’ but instead make enough meals and snacks to stock the freezer for a full month of Monday through Friday. Like brushing teeth I think it works better to make it so routine that you don’t even notice you’re doing it. This last will actually help move other goals forward (thus eliminating an excuse) by freeing up more time every weekend.
My health is absolutely a priority, but it can’t be the only priority which is why I’m taking a more moderate approach. Cross your fingers for me that I can stick to it!
Holding Myself Accountable:
I’m keeping up with my plan for photography – I’ve selected the images for the first book chapter and gotten some bizarre and fun shots in my yard over the last week.
True beauty has strength
March 1, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Visual Meditation of the Week
There is something compelling in this flower, although I doubt you’d call it pretty. Feel the thick texture and the symmetry of each petal yielding the next. It is beautiful because of the very things that keep it from being pretty. Are you trimming down the very things that make you beautiful in an attempt to be conventional and “pretty”?
Tropical Maui, Juliet Chase, all rights reserved
Focus, goals, and surprises
February 26, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Juliet's Journal
I think my new routine is starting to work for me, while it’s hard to get focused so early and stay focused after a full day of doing other things, knowing that there are limits on it helps. I’ve put pen to paper or rather fingers to keyboard on the travel book – not much and I doubt any of those sentences will survive to the final draft but it’s a start. And I’ve sent follow-up emails to setup appointments for jewelry and kept up some basic blogging tasks. There is always more to do!
While I haven’t been watching the Olympics, living so close to where they’re happening means I can’t avoid all the local stories and news features. It seems like there is always at least one young athlete profile with a kid at the top of her game who also manages straight A’s and is or will be going to an ivy league school while continuing to compete internationally. You can be envious of what they have achieved or critical of what they’re missing but pretty much everyone agrees it requires great focus. Focus seems to come up everywhere there is talk of great goals that are clearly defined. My two hours a day is giving me focus but it’s also creating space in the remainder of my free time for something equally valuable – observation and daydreaming and everything that is at the opposite extreme.
That’s what I realized as I contemplated the life of said young athlete – she probably isn’t missing out on the big stuff; graduation, birthdays, Disney World but I’m pretty sure anyone that focused all the time is missing out on being unfocused – noticing that a neighbor two blocks down has unusual crocuses blooming or just spending an afternoon on the porch with a romance novel. Those things were important to me as a teenager and they’re important to me now. If they’re that much a part of my essential self I’d better figure out how to work them in to the schedule…
The No Excuses Project: Losing weight for better health
February 24, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
I wish weight were a purely aesthetic consideration – but, it isn’t when it impacts flexibility and miles hiked. So it’s important for my health and also for accomplishing my other goals. I hate to admit it but it’s been falling pretty much last on the list for quite awhile. Like many, I’ve made some progress in this area in the past and then lost ground when my routine changed. That’s how I got to still having it on my list of unmet goals. The real power of excuses on this one for me (and I suspect for many of you) is that I don’t really want to do the process – I want the result but unlike photography or some of my other goals I don”t like the ‘doing’ part. Here are the excuses I know I’ve used in the last six months:
- I’m too tired (who isn’t?)
- I have too many other projects
- I’ll do it tomorrow (it’s raining, there’s nothing on tv, etc.)
- I don’t have the right equipment (this would be easy if I owned that $5,000 treadmill…)
As you can see there’s nothing really imaginative on this list and yet while I suspect the excuses are common, there seems to be a slightly different solution for everyone.
Next week: How I plan to overcome these excuses
Holding myself accountable:
So how’d I do on photography last week? I’d have to give myself about a C+. I did get the camera out for a few brief interludes and did start the first few sentences of that book but not as much as I’d hoped for.
Frivolity
February 22, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Visual Meditation of the Week
On close inspection there is something delightfully silly and frivolous about witch hazel blossoms – the bright curling petals going every which way. If Mother Nature can let her hair down and be seen in public like this, what’s stopping you?
Can you really achieve your goals on 2 hours a day?
February 19, 2010 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Juliet's Journal
There’s no big status report this week – my big accomplishment has been losing my voice as a not-quite-bad-enough-to-stay-home cold has occupied my time. What I’ve notice though is the amount of pressure I’m putting on myself to still accomplish great things on a very routine basis. It’s always interesting to note where you put punishing pressure on yourself to be superhuman. And yet not doing those things is not an option to my essential self- it’s going along with this working 8 hours for someone else because my essential self is also fond of its house and warm bed.
Then last night as I was coming home on the train I was listening to a podcast – figuring that would be about all my cold-ravaged brain could really handle. Synchronicity or not, the phrase ‘most real work happens in just two hours a day’ caught my attention. The idea being that two separate hours a day, completely focused on the task at hand is what accomplishes great things. I have two hours a day, mostly uninterrupted with wireless access on the train. The only thing I can’t do is make jewelry during that time so I’m re-evaluating to how to do less while doing more in that time frame. If I put in those ten hours a week then time at home can go to eating right and exercising and maybe an adventure here and there.
I am worried about getting to that point of self-sustainment, but it won’t happen if I keep getting sick and this just may force me to be a little more efficient in my writing. I’ll let you be the judge:-)
