January and all of its resolutions have gone whisking by in a flurry of snow storms and bad weather. Well meaning plans and dreams have been tucked back into the someday jar and the lid screwed on tight.
It’s February. We’ve passed that chilling reminder of Groundhog’s Day with its frightening message.
Keep doing what you’ve always done, and you will get exactly what you have always gotten.”
And the more subtle question it asks:
If it isn’t what you want, then what are you doing what you are doing for?”
January first brings motivation, or disillusionment for those who have let themselves down too many times in the past to believe in their own rhetoric anymore.
By February many of the people who made resolutions have forgotten what they were in the first place.
Are you one of them?
I don’t make resolutions. I claimed a word of the year (I have been for several years now) and the word that made the final cut was the word BE.
In the front of my journal for this year it says:
BE- In all its glory, BE.
BE-Love, BE- Creative, BE-Joy, BE-Abundance, BE-One, BE-Open, BE-Healthy, BE-Active, BE-Generous, BE- Serenity, BE- Productive.
My to-do lists have gone by the wayside. That BE-list is the list I wake up to and look at every day.
It reminds me of who I want to BE.
From there, I decide, “What do I need to do today to BE who I want to be?”
All of my plans and action steps are built from there.
Except when they aren’t.
It turns out that BE-ing is harder than DO-ing. It requires a dedication to focus and being awake to my every moment that is challenging and I have to admit somewhat slippery.
And BE-ing the Human BE-ing that I am, sometimes I fall out of Being, and fall into just “Doing the next thing.”
When that happens my momentum of BE comes to a crashing halt. I forget my purpose, my reason for what I was doing it all for in the first place and then the day turns into a chore again, another tick-tock on the clock while I push through to get everything done.
“HEY! Where did my BEing go?” I have found myself asking that woman in the mirror on several occasions so far this year, when I have caught myself standing in front of the fridge munching away, or reaching the end of the day and wondering what I got done, or rushing to get things done in a very non-mindful way, focused on the urgent and forgetting what is important to me.
So I’ve had to change it up. I brought back the checklist, but a new and improved version of it. Instead of chores on it, there are states of being and the activities I need to do to continue to BE that person.
Do I want to BE healthy? Then there are action steps on there that involve eating a lot of green food, drinking water and doing my daily yoga ad meditation.
Do I want to BE creative? Then there are action steps that involve daily painting, exploring, reading, writing and taking space in my day for asking the WHY questions that spark my imagination.
Do I want to BE love? Then there are action steps on my list that answer the question what does Love need to do today?
The point of creating tangible action steps for the day is that they are measurable, have a built in completion, give me a sense of progress and are a concrete way of staying awake and focused on how I purposefully want to live.
When I feel myself beginning to drift, wander, being reactive instead of being proactive, I can pick up my BE-ing list and get instantly back on track.
Sounds simple enough?
Well, there’s a catch. (There is always a catch isn’t there?)
In order to really put this mindful living in practice over and over again throughout the day, I have to be in a constant state of re-commitment.
I have to be in a state of self-love and core strength that keeps me from being blown over the first time someone says…”Can you just…” Which is always the precursor for, “Can you just drop everything that is important to you right now and come and do this thing for me?”
I have to be in a state of self-love that reminds me that I am worthy of living a life of BE-ing, not jumping and doing.
I have to be in a state of Self-love that puts the BE list before the DO list. Because that DO list is a siren song always beckoning, always pulling me away from the truly important.
I have to stand my ground.
And so do you.
It’s so easy to say, “Just this once, and then I’ll get right back to BE-ing.”
The problem with that is it is a lie that is created to tear your self love down. Because just this once is the first step to letting go and saying, “What difference does it really make after all, I can’t really do that thing I said was the most important way I want to live. It’s only a dream. It’s not real life.
Here is the Big Truth that keeps trying to hide.
Your real life is the series of tiny choices you are making every minute that you are either BE-ing a wide awake person, or wandering lost as a SLEEP-walking one.
Your Real Life is being created minute by minute and you have countless options every day in exactly how you want that life to BE.
You have to love yourself enough to stand up for what you want to BE first though.
Take a Stand. Decide who you want to BE…and then don’t let life whisk by while you are waiting for it to come.
BE it.
