Show up

I realized that last week's post about priorities may have been a little heavy...

So I gave you a break.

By now you should be ready.

Did you look at your agenda?  Did you clean it up?  Did you figure out what your priority is?

You are.

You have to be your own priority...

How are you gonna make this happen?
What will you do to take care of yourself?

Did you think about you as a kid...  when no one was watching or keeping you busy, and you had a few minutes or hours (if you were that lucky) to yourself, what did you do?  How did you keep yourself busy?

Finding this out is a start...
But there are other ways...

Perhaps you already know what you would do if suddenly you became completely free.  If you had time... money... the right friend or spouse... equipment... knowledge... dexterity... imagination...

I could go on and on.  We find so many excuses not to do the things we wish to do.

They say that if you really want to do something you'll find a way, if not, you'll find an excuse.

What matters most is wanting to do something.  You don't have to have it completely figured out yet.  You do not have to know the end result in detail. You need an idea, a vision.

Just SHOW UP.
Take a small step in the right direction...
Give it a try.  You owe it to yourself. You do.

Perhaps this "thing" will become all our life and make your rich... or perhaps you'll always suck at it but it will brighten your days...  but it could also be anything in between that you can't think of.  Who knows?

Just show up.  Do the work.  Try. Take small steps.

If you need time figure what you can take out of your schedule...  do you spend too much time watching TV? The internet? Social media? Shopping? Making food? Putting make up on, getting yur nails done, etc? Figure out what to wear? Clean your home? Do you sleep to much because you do not have energy? ...
All this can be fixed.  It can. Trust me.

If you need money, figure out where every penny you spend goes.  Every penny.  No exception.  Track your expenses for 3 months and see where your money goes.  The problem almost never is how much money you make but rather how much you spend. How much is your internet/television package? Do you buy more stuff than you actually need? Do you eat more than you have to? Do you go out more then you wish to? Do you live somewhere to expensive/to big for your family? What is it that you are willing to cut budget wise? By any chance, does that also frees up time?  I bet it does...

If you need the right people around you, go out and find them!  Not on the internet... actually find real people with common interest by taking a course (knitting, cooking, painting, mechanics, home design...), joining a book club or any other club, volunteering, taking a yoga class or joining a gym...  go see a movie alone... there are countless options of real life opportunity that can make you meet the right people.

If you need knowledge and dexterity, go back up a paragraph...  you will kill two birds with one stone:  meet the people and acquire the knowledge, skills, dexterity you need!

If you need more imagination well meditate, spend time alone, stop watching television and reading the newspaper...  but mostly, spend time alone in silence.  It will come.

Now, if you really want to live your dream life, do all the above.  Figure out where you time and money goes... often hand in hand! Go get the resources you need.  They are out there.  And just start doing it. Small steps.

If you want to do something. Really want it.  You will do it. You will make no excuses and you will figure out a way to make it work... and as you go, you will see options, opportunities opening up...  You will find solutions to what comes in the way...

Five years ago, in October 2013, I left my last corporate job.  Swearing to myself that I would do what I have to do not go back to work full time for a big corporation in a cubicle... And I did.

It was hard... it was messy...  I had no idea how to do it and certainly no idea what I would do but I didn't want to work full time anymore.  It was draining the life out of me... I had no plan b at the time.  I had forgotten what I liked and who I was...  but I found it. I did yoga, meditated, read countless books...  We moved to a province where the cost of living was lower so that I would work in a coffee shop part time... Then we took care of our debts... We lower the cost of living by cutting off television (using internet and Netflix only), changed the way we eat, taking a smaller apartment, shopping less, thrifting, stopped dying my hair...  All this liberated money and time! I had to fill this time with something...  so I tried many things.  Most of them did not stick. But some did. And over time, I even couldn't figure out how I could spare the time to work part time... and we had enough money on one income... so we made the leap! My husband is currently the sole income and we are both fine with that.  We adjusted, we changed a few things around... and surprisingly, even he has more time now that I no longer work... and that he doesn't need overtime to make ends meet...  We both have more time... a little less money but time to us is worth so much more!!!  We can spend more time in the woods... reading... walking... time doing stuff we like!  And in turns, it makes us want to spend less...

It was not as simple as it may seem... I can't write down all that happen in five years in this blog post...  but it definitely was not a straight line...  We had ups and downs...  one day it seem like it could happen and on some days I even thought about finding a regular job to get more money... sometimes I thought I had to cut too much and was not sure it was worth it... but I tried...  I did not quit! Well, I did quit my job, but not my dream!

Quite frankly, we are richer now then when we use to make three times more money as a family income! Even my husband can now do work he loves instead of work only to get a given pay check.

It took five years.  But we did not quit. We make it work.  We showed up.  We did the work. We found solutions.

And now I can write all the time...  I love doing it so much... even when I am not writing I am writing...

Quite frankly, I do not know if I am any good at it, by academics standards, but there are people reading me everyday and this to me means that even if I am not the best writer in the whole world (and I know I am not), that's OK because obviously some people need to read what I have to write.

If we made it work, so can you!

Let me know if you need help... it will be my pleasure to help you out...

Chloe 💜&✌