Acting In Accord ~ Utilizing Lists!

This is something that has been on my mind for the last week: acting in accord.

I'm talking about actions that support your goals, whether these are short term, daily, or life-long goals.

You see, I've noticed, as I was filling out my Awesome 2015 Workbook from Leonie Dawson that a lot of my actions from last year did not support my ultimate goals.  For example, if I wanted to establish and maintain healthy boundaries, letting my family members walk all over me certainly gave the universe some very mixed messages.  Saying I wanted to lose weight more than anything, but refusing to exercise when I was on my menstrual cycle did not support my goal to lose weight.  Neither did insisting that I was going to have a clean, organized home, but then making excuses not to do it and spending entire days being lazy.

Now sure, there were extenuating circumstances that would fall in this category.  But as my boyfriend's father is fond of saying, they're still excuses.  Stop complaining and just do it.

Which is one of my goals this year: just do it.  Stop procrastinating.  Stop making excuses.  Just get up off your butt and do it.  Even if it scares the crap out of you.  Even if you don't want to do it.  Be productive!

So I've been thinking about what it is I really want out of this year, and what daily actions I could do - or change - that would support those goals.

My goals for 2015:

• Productivity.  My original word of the year was Action, but I ended up changing it to Productivity.  To me, being productive means that I get things done - no more procrastinating, no more thinking about things and theorizing about things.  The house is clean (or at least straightened up - including the litter box, which I hate to do), I've written something (doesn't matter what), I've taken some time to breathe (as in meditation, either in addition to yoga or as part of it), and I've exercised (I'll give myself some slack when I'm sore, but no longer than 1 day).  
• Meditation.  It relaxes me, let's me tune into my intuition, allows me to connect with nature, and it works as a stress-relief.  Meditation also helps me with my epilepsy and depression - both of which can cause a fogginess on "bad days" that can lead to a higher chance of a seizure (but doesn't guarantee one).  This is something I wanted to do last year but never really made it a habit.  My goal is to make it a habit this year.  Meditating should be done EVERY DAY.  
• Yoga.  I used to be extremely flexible, and since I've taken on a sedentary lifestyle, my flexibility has lessened, which is really sad!  Plus, I want to lose weight, but I'm having trouble with cardio because of a bad ankle that swells up like crazy - yoga (and walking) are pretty much the only things that don't make my ankle swell and ache.  Since I feel fantastic from yoga, and it helps with my depression, I want to make sure that I get AT LEAST 3 sessions a week, preferably every other day until I build up the strength to make it daily.  
• Book of Shadows.  I started seriously filling in my BoS last year, and I got really far!  Only problem is, as the year went by, I began to realize that I needed to modify a lot of the pages I made earlier to reflect me changing my mind or learning something new.  But I want to keep it at it!  Plus, I've started following judedirect's Book of Shadow prompts series, and it's been going great so far!  I fully intent to upload my entries here as I go.  
• Income.  I don't have any.  I want some.  I'm not really deprived of anything, but I really would like to have a little extra cash to spend on frivolous, non-necessities.  I'd like to be able to pick up a deck of tarot cards that looked really neat.  I'd like to be able to go to the crafts store and splurge on a project.  I'd like to have the money to go ahead and order that cute top from Forever21 that's all lace - just because it's cute and I don't have one.  Any stream of income will do.  
• Organized.  I always say I'm going to get organized, but then I get lazy.  This year, I really want to make more of an effort to get organized AND STAY THAT WAY.  If I see something out of place, get off my butt and put it back now rather than later.  Part of this is developing a routine and sticking to it - even when I'm not home.  This ties in with productivity.  
• Reading.  The only things I read last year were George RR Martin books.  While that is a feat, I would like to accomplish more this year.  My goal is 12 spiritual books and 12 historical Regency-themed ones.  
• Garden.  I had a container garden last year; I want to have an actual in-the-ground garden this year.  I'm determined!  And, I'm keeping my butt home this summer so that none of my plants die.  
• Writing.  I love to write.  Even when I'm not posing things online, I'm doing something creative throughout the day - BoS entries, grimoire entries, journaling, research, lists, short stories, roleplaying.  I want to really take Max Kirin's advice and make writing a daily habit.  

Okay, so now that I have an idea of my goals (and the reasons behind them), there's something that I really liked from Leonie Dawson: make a list.  I love lists!  Each goal should have a list of actionable, achievable things that help me work through my goals.  Ideally, these would be things that I could do on a daily basis, or at least on a weekly one.  

Productivity

• When I see something that needs to be done, do it RIGHT THEN.  
• Set 3 MITs (Most Important Things) to do each morning.  
• Start my day with intent.  Use this intent while doing yoga, meditation, and lighting incense.  
• Create a daily routine.  
• Surround myself with uplifting affirmations.
• If I see something out of place, clean/move it right then.  
• No procrastination!  No excuses!  Just do it!  
• Create an energetic music play list to keep me motivated while doing chores.  

Meditation

• Research different meditation styles.  
• Try each meditation style out for at least a week.  
• Create a meditation altar.  
• Develop meditation triggers (such as incense, sounds, chants, affirmations, gestures, postures, etc).  
• Frame meditation affirmations on my altar space.  
• Set my phone to remind me to meditate.  
• Journal my meditation experiences.  

Book of Shadows

• Journal everyday.  
• Follow Judedirect's weekly BoS prompts.  
• Write a new blog post (or more!) every week.  
• Edit a new blog post (or more!) every week.  
• Note: try different things - put nothing in the BoS without personal experience!  

Income

• Look for a job.  
• Look into revenue for blogging.  
• Explore Etsy shop options.  
• Read tarot out of my home/in parks.  
• Start an abundance altar.  
• Start a gratitude jar (preferably on the abundance altar).  
• Daily affirmations having to do with deserving wealth (I have a block - I don't really think I deserve to have nice things).  
• Figure out why I have the above block (journaling, shadow work, self-help books).  
• Create an abundance dream board.  
• Feng shui (there's some great tips in a book I have).  
• Start a savings jar (for a vacation).  

Organized

• Update my household notebook.  
• Add a section to the household notebook for blogging.  
• Create a daily routine.  
• No procrastination!  No excuses!  
• If I see something out of place, clean/move it right then.  
• Make cleaning a habit.  
• Reward myself for being organized.  
• Get enough sleep every night.  
• Implement tips from Do It On A Dime and similar YouTubers.   
• Declutter anything that has not been used within the past year.  

Gardening

• Go through my seeds and decide what I'll be planting this year.  
• Look up when each seeds should be started.  
• Make a garden chart of where each plant should be (with the appropriate space required).  
• Use the Garden Manager app to remind me to plant and water.  
• Prune according to the moon phase.  
• Bless seeds at Imbolc.  
• Ask Pat to borrow his hoe/plough
• Start looking for a new spade (mine broke last autumn)
• Garden bed blessing for Imbolc.  
• Garden offerings.  
• Connect with the earth.  
• Work with an earth goddess, such as Gaia.  

NaNoWriMo Week 1

I thought that since NaNoWriMo has been going on a for a week now, that I would take some time for an update.

Well, my routine is okay.  It's comforting, it gives me a chance to straighten up the living room before I work (a cluttered environment = a cluttered mind), and it puts me in the right state of mind with writing.  

I had several epiphanes throughout the week, usually surrounding character development of more minor characters, that I do think I'll be able to incorporate into my story.  I've also been exchanging personal messages with a few authors at the NaNoWriMo website, which has helped tons!  Particularly the fellow author who is writing a novel set in the same era as my own.  :)  

My enthusiasm was on full blast at the beginning of the week, but has slowly begun to wane.  I spend roughly the first two hours of my day working on my novel, and I haven't covered as much ground as I would have liked, though I am meeting my daily writing requirements.  In fact, I was ahead of schedule for most of the week.  

Today, however, I woke up and just couldn't do it; I couldn't sit still and write.  I've been feeling tired, and now I'm at a point in the story where I'm not sure which direction I'm going to go.  But, I gave myselef permission to take the day off - writing seven days consecutively, I feel like I have earned a day off.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a total day off from writing (hence, this blog post), and I did do some minor era research.  I might even take tomorrow off, and readjust my schedule and writing requirements to give myself the weekends off.  

Sigh.  

Writing everyday is harder than I thought it would be.  Not the writing part, exactly, but the focus required to writing about the same thing each day.  I'm a roleplayer, meaning I like to participate in collaborate writing on forums; I have a wide range of tastes and preferences, and this is reflected in the things I choose to write about.  I think the most challenging part of NaNoWriMo, for me, is to sit down and work on ONE project every day instead of being completely scatter-brained and write about whatever it is that I feel like writing about at that time.  

I think I might need to work on structure within my writing... actually schedule time for blogging, for novel writing, for research, for roleplaying.  

NaNoWriMo Prep!

For those of you who are not familiar with this challenge, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month - a challenge where authors (or anyone who loves writing) attempts to write 50,000 words for a novella/novel/play/whatever during the span of 30 days in November, starting on the 1st.  The community there is wonderful, and once registered on the site, you can put in information about your novel, your writing experience, connect with buddies to keep you motivated, and participate in forums to discuss all of your frustrations and triumphs around writing.

I have participated before, but failed each time.  When I tried to write while working two jobs, it just didn't work out - I was too tired, too cranky, and couldn't establish a routine because my hours were random each week.  And since November was the start of the Christmas shopping season, I found myself pulling doubles most days of the week, and didn't actually have a day off for most of the month.  Another year, I over-planned - I sat down, did extensive character profiles, figured out each scene within each chapter, and took my time exploring every facet of the story.  Unfortunately, I did this for a solid month before writing, so when it came time to put it all down on paper, I was just really sick of my story.  A couple other times I didn't make it through the challenge for lack of an exciting idea, establishing a routine, and having a sufficient support group.

I have learned much over my attempts at NaNoWriMo.

Technically speaking, my prep started a the weekend of the 25th of Ocotber.  Yeah, I know, it was only a week!  Well, I kind of forgot about it until I was browsing Youtube (everyone knows it's my obsession, along with Pinterest >.>) and saw someone posting a NaNoWriMo prep video.  It suddenly dawned on me - oh yeah! - NaNo starts in a week!  So I rushed off to prepare.

There were so many things to do in such a small space of time!  I needed to figure out what story I was going to choose, flesh out some characters, come up with a general plot, and figure out how I was going to establish a writing routine.  I went to the internet immediately.

First thing I did was post in the Season of the Seeker group on Facebook.  This is my all-time favorite group!  I joined initially when I started working through the Season of the Seeker group, hosted by Ahneke Greystone, whom I met over on Youtube (check out her channel Mirth and Reverence).  She is an amazing lady, and I've learned so much - though I am still far behind the others in my yahoo group as part of the Greystone Path.  I'm making progress, though!

Anyway, I posted there if there were any deities that other practitioners had connected with for projects such as novel-writing.  I got some really good answers and replies, and I took the time to do some research.  Unfortunately, none really called out to me - except for maybe Hermes, but for an entirely different reason, which I may go into in a different article - so I decided that, in the end, I would not work with a specific deity for novel-writing this month.  This doesn't mean I won't in the future, just that, at this point in time, I'm not really mean to.

I then looked up various "how to write a novel" articles and didn't really find much helpful information - most of the techniques either didn't work for me, or was the sort I used back when I over-planned a novel.  Part of the fun, for me, is exploring where my characters go - if I have too much set in stone, the appeal of writing is lost; it's more like writing a paper for class than exercising my creative thought process.

A lot my time was spent for the first few days on what story I would write.  It suddenly dawned on me: hello!  You've roleplayed in the Regency era for ages.  You've been pushing specific characters for plots on those roleplay sites for ages.  You've been researching this era for ages.  Why not take the story into your own hands?  Take those characters and write about them!

Well, I kind of felt a little on the stupid side for not considering it before, but that's when I decided on my project: to write about my three favorite pre-made characters (with extensive character profiles already created, as well as basic family connections and reasons for being in London).  I settled on the date of 1811, the beginning of the Regency, just because that felt right.  Plus, I wouldn't have to do too much in the way of research of events that happened that year that might affect my characters - most of that stuff happened the following year and later - which would leave me more time to really focus on character development of my characters rather than including historically accurate events of the time.

Then I came across M. Kirin on Youtube.  Oh my gosh!  What a lifesaver!  His methods of story crafting, preparation and fleshing out were in sync with the way I do things.  So, I spent some time watching his videos and following his suggestions on writing out plots, character connections, etc.

While I was searching for things, I noticed that my back was really taking its toll.  I had a hard time focusing at my desk, as it was facing a wall, away from everything else - something I have never really been too fond of.  When my boyfriend borrowed a square card table from his brother, for the longest time I had moved everything to that table, and set it up in front of the windows - I could see the TV to my right, the yard, sky and trees to my left, and had a pretty good view of the rest of the apartment to my front.  It was perfect.  But then he had to go and take that back, so I moved it all back to my desk... and it just wasn't working.

So I got out our card table.  Why didn't I do that from the beginning?  Well, we have a buffet-length card table, bought for Pathfinder sessions (there are seven of us who play, including my boyfriend, the DM, who doesn't sit at the table during sessions).  It's big, it's bulky, and it's really cheaply made - it doesn't even flatten in the center folding part.  Plus, it's made of textured plastic that picks up lint like crazy!  It's size was mostly my objection.  But I put it up, wiped it down, and immediately wished I hadn't, as the paper towel I had used actually made it look dirtier than it was before.

On one end, I set up the laptop and the monitor (the laptop screen is broken, so I have to have it connected to a monitor if I want to see what I'm doing on that thing).  I include two coasters, one for my morning cup of tea, and one for a tall glass of cold water, as well as my hand-written plot and character details.  Right under the monitor, on a Subway napkin (for better traction and cushion) I have a collection of crystals that I selected - quartz for focus and clear intention, citirine for breaking through writer's block, all of the blue stones I possess for creative expression (linked to the throat chakra), and fool's gold for manifestation of my novel.

I should note that I keep my skull opalite on my person at the moment.  It helps me focus on the positive, gives me uplifting energy to complete my goals, and helps a lot with my mood shifts/swings.  Not to mention this crystal likes to hum to me.  :)

I also have mala beads on this table, because they dig into wrist when I type - I have a nasty habit of resting my wrists against the keyboard/table while typing, so it gets uncomfortable when I'm wearing my beads.  They were meant to be a necklace, but the length isn't as long as I like it, so I just wrap it three times around my left wrist, usually.  I also keep Georgette Heyer's Regency World nearby for quick reference - that book is amazing for Regency-era stuff, by the way.  Just awesome.  :)

On the other end, I set up my tarot reading space.  :)  There's a round metal plate from the dollar store that I set up a candle holder with decorative clear glass stones; I use it as an incense holder, and change out the glass stones every week.  Behind the candleholder I have some mini-size matches in a box, and in front of the candle holder, though it's hard to see, I have rose quartz, clear quartz, and amethyst chunks.  My cards - the Medieval Cat Tarot and the Earth Magic oracle decks - are usually wrapped up in my new scarf (from Walmart - and though I don't really like buying from there, I do love my scarf!  It's folded in half to get the square size I wanted, with one side being gold with blue accents, and the reverse side being blue with gold accents.  It also feels super soft and silky, and has a fringe at the ends.).  I even did a tarot reading for a friend over the phone the day I set it up.  I still have to do a reading for another friend, but we're trying to sync up schedules so that she can come over in person.

Anyway.

I also read some of the articles recommended on the NaNoWriMo blog, and got some pretty useful information.  The most important to me at the time was the article about establishing a routine.  I know from experience that I have a love/hate relationship with routine.  It's good because I don't forget to specific things once it's established.  It's bad because monotony = boredom, so after awhile if I don't switch it up, I'll lose interest completely and make any and every excuse I can find to avoid doing my routine.  Plus, if something happens - like babysitting or going out of town - that breaks my routine, it's really hard to get back into it.

My current, newly-created writing routine:

• Wake up.  
• Check phone - email, facebook, calendar updates, any other social media updates that have appeared since I've went to sleep. If I'm feeling a bit groggy, then I might play a morning game of solitaire.  
• Feed the cats, replace their water, put on water for tea.  
• Shower (if I haven't the night before - on really cold notes when I have a chill, I take a lava-hot shower; if I had a shower the night before, I just wash my face real quick), dress, do my hair, put on makeup, slather some lotion on me, spritz with body spray, and get dressed.  
• Make my tea, get a glass of water and ice, and turn on my laptop and youtube (through the roku box).  I have a youtube channel with some popular classical musicians from the Regency era playing.  Most of them are 1 to 2 hours long, so I usually only listen to one or two a day, depending on the length.  I keep the remotes near the laptop to adjust the sound as necessary.  
• Pull up Google Chrome, load the internet page for Correct Forms of Address, and the page for Regency Name Generator (I'm lazy with names, admittedly).  I also start up yWriter, iDailyDiary and Microsoft Word.  I write my story using Word, and then copy and paste the contents into yWriter, iDailyDiary, save the Word file onto my pc, and then copy it into Dropbox (which auto-starts when the pc is turned on).  If one of these becomes corrupted, deleted, or otherwise unusable, I have several other options available to me, including a back-up online through Dropbox.  :)  
• Write!  I typically set my phone to let me know when an hour has passed.  After the hour is up, I get up, use the bathroom, stretch my legs.  Then I go back and sit down for another hour or so.  

During this time, I completely ignore my phone (except for the hour timer).  No phone calls, no looking at it for updates, no texting.  My morning routine is reserved strictly for writing.  So far, so good!

I don intend on getting a pronged folder for my notes.  They were taken on computer paper, but I punched holes in them - I just don't have a spare folder not in use at the moment.  They're in danger of being wet - my cats like to knock over water when I'm not paying attention - so it's something I want to get soon.  It will probably be blue - the color of inspiration, communication, and creativity (to me).  :)