When I was a kid, I spent a lot of my summers reading. I would read stories that absorbed my mind and took me to new places. I developed new ideas and new relationships with those characters. I think it made my mom crazy because I always had a few more pages to read before I did the things around the house she needed me to do. I totally get that now.
Now I make sure I have done the things before I reward myself with reading…or relaxing.
I was a great deal happier as a kid.
I was listening to a Rachel Hollis podcast yesterday. (The Rachel Hollis Podcast – episode 176) She recommended writing down all the ways you spent your time the previous year and deciding if it added to your life or distracted. Did it make you feel you were living the good life or was it a waste of time? Did the time add to your goals and make you more of the person you want to be, or did it distract from that person?
After listening to that I realized I had to do two things. First, I had to define what living the good life meant for me. What do I find rewarding, creatively satisfying, and fulfilling? How should I spend my time to help me become the person I want to be? Second, then I would need to look back at 2020 and see how much time I spent doing those things and how much time I wasted doing other things.
This will be part of my adventure for 2021. And I will start today by reading first and cleaning second. I will spend time with a coffee and a notebook and think about how I want to spend my time by myself, with my husband and with my family so I feel like I am living a good life.
Then I need to follow through. I need to plan to have those experiences. I need to ask my husband on a date. I need to make a lunch date with my daughter and son. I need to get out with my camera and take some pictures. And I need to sit down with a drink and a snack and read that book.
