Welcome to April! Well technically it’s almost the middle of April. I have been doing some readjusting this month and I have not made real time for my sewing or blogging, but I am still focused on intentional living. This month I have set a few of my goals in motion. There are some goals that I have not even touched and I am in the 2Q of the year. Fortunately, I have been practicing giving grace to myself so I’m not being hard on myself. This is a “grace” month during my year of I.N.T.E.N.T.I.O.N.A.L Living. This month’s focus are the "3E's": Editing, Eliminating, and Enjoying. As fore mentioned, there are a few goals that I wrote down for this year that I haven’t even touched and here is where I may look at editing. Editing focuses on looking at those goals or things in our life that may need to be reexamined, rewritten, or reimagined? Editing can be applied in any area of our life. From something as simple as looking at your goals, your wardrobe or your social media to something as complex as looking at you thoughts, habits, or mindset.
So here are my goals that I wanted to accomplish this year:
· Exercise 3x a week
· Sew a garment monthly and post (monthly challenges)
· Read 3 books a month and post a review
· Write/journal at 1x a week
· Lose 20lbs
· Sky dive
· Sew 3 commissioned projects
· Write handwritten letters/send card to old friends/current friend 1x a month
· Have a mother/son date monthly with Kody
· Date night w/ hubby
· Post me-made on SIA (20 th )
· Complete Sew-It Academy course & project 1x a month
· 1 event (running, biking) per quarter
As you can see, some goals were based on a monthly or quarterly basis. Looking over my list, I can tell you that my quarterly goal was not accomplished during 1Q and from the looks of how “my life is set up right now” I realistically will not accomplish my quarterly goals at all this year! But that’s ok (grace speaking)…I can make an edit (hence the strike-throughs) to my list of goals and readjust. There are also monthly goals that I haven’t accomplished either. Again, no worries, edits can be made and those things that were to be completed monthly may have to be reexamined to maybe quarterly or just a certain number of times for the year.
Here were some other areas that I had to look at editing:
My wardrobe: What do I want my closet to look like? Definitely neat and organized. Less flowers and more color! I reimagined my closet being organized and color coded. All my shoes stacked in the same containers. I had to remove everything out of the closet to see a clean slate for the closet “edit”.
My social media: Is it just me or did 2020 give you a glimpse of who some folks really were on your social media? What do you want your social media to look like?
My mindset: I believe that thoughts become words, words become action, actions become habits, and habits become character. My mind is the planting ground/soil for who I am and who I want to be. With that said, I must have the right mindset in order to properly know what to do with my thoughts. I choose every day to have a “growth mindset” so any time a thought comes to me, if it doesn’t serve me well in the area of personal growth or freedom, then I know that I need to edit that thought and arrange it to fit into a growth paradigm.
After the editing was complete it was now time to eliminate the things that were no longer needed. Those things that don’t fit into the new edited canvas had to be eliminated. I had to ask myself, what are the things that don’t serve me anymore? You don’t have to necessarily “trash” them, you could gift them, sell them, or donate them (if they are items). Let me preface the process of eliminating while channeling the Japanese organizing Consultant, Marie Kondo. Before you let go of anything, take a moment to acknowledge and show your gratitude and appreciation for that which you are about to eliminate. For example, before you eliminate an object, thank it (yes, thank the object) for serving you in whatever way it did.
If you are eliminating old ideas, habits, or ways of being keep your “why” in mind and allow grace to be a part of the eliminating process. When eliminating old ideas or habits keep in mind they’ve had a hold of you for a while so they may fight to try and stay around. This is where the grace comes in…if there are moments that you revert back to the old ideas or habits once you are aware of the reversion, stop, take a breath, remind the habit or idea that it is not welcome any more, allow yourself to give yourself grace then receive the grace and get back to being your intentional self.
When you are eliminating people or social media “friends/contacts” you can just delete them or stealthily cut them off (my preferred method). Or you could reach out to those you decided to eliminate and let them know that you are shifting/transitioning into a new space or season and that you appreciate the time/season that they were in your life.
Once the elimination process is complete, a moment to take a proverbial "deep breath" is needed. This moment can be a literal moment or it could be a certain amount of time... your decision. *Side note: In my humble opinion, I feel like we (me included) are so accustomed to go, go, go...that we don't know how to just stop and take a break. I can tell you there have been many, many, many (can I keep going) times that I have straight up felt guilty about sitting down and putting my feet up! There is ALWAYS something that needs to get done so take a moment to put your feet up!
Now, ENJOY!! Enjoy the new place, the new space, the new mindset, the new (fill in the blank). Enjoy where you are right now. Enjoy being you. Enjoy the privilege you have been given to be the only YOU in this whole universe! Enjoy the continued journey of your life!
