Happy New Year! 2015 has arrived and probably came in along with many resolutions, goals, dreams, desires, and plans on the calendar. By the time I write this blog, many of these grand ideas will have already been cast off like uncomfortable clothes, and set aside.
I confess that I am a chief among list makers. I organize, sort, classify, and cross out. I compile and categorize. I order and number. There was a time in my life when I could not go to bed before every item on that day’s to-do list was crossed off successfully. After years of struggle I am finally content to move a straggling item or two to the next day’s agenda.
As I set out and embark upon a new year, a blank slate, a wide horizon, I am wondering if there might not be a better way to order my days than by setting goals. I am playing with the idea of having good intentions. Not in a the road to hell is paved with good intentions kind of way, but in a mindful, purposeful way of setting intentions for the day ~ ones I intend to follow.
For example, I intend to work more on songwriting this year in the hopes of recording some new material. Rather than blocking out 2:30-3:30 pm each day for that purpose, my intention is to make it part of every day, no matter whether the prescribed time slot works out or not. There is nothing wrong with jotting down a proposed schedule, but if you are like me, it rarely runs like clockwork. But with an intention held firmly in my mind and heart, I can know that even if 2:30 slips past and found me doing something other than songwriting, my intention is to work it into another time and place this day.
It is an experiment, a risk. I’ll let you know how it goes. But at the end of the day, I’m curious to find out if I don’t reflect back on days where for the most part my intentions were met, and also where for the most part my guilt over mandates that did not pan out that day will be lessened. I hope so … that is my good intention. What’s yours?