Day 8 - Moving On

"Look at what you've done
Then at what you want
Not at where you are...
Where you'll be"

"Move On" from "Sunday in the Park with George"
by Stephen Sondheim

In the past, every time I have attempted one of these 6 week plans, I have run into snags somewhere about now.

Despite my attempts to make it play out otherwise, week 1 has always been a little like the first week of the Tour de France, or the first lap of the Indy 500. It's a shakedown... a jostling for position. The week is largely made up of adjusting priorities, changing the projected schedules, dropping some goals and picking up others. And that is exactly how things played out last week, but this time with a difference. From the very beginning of the week I had a sense that this is the way things would go and while I had a pretty clear sense of direction, and a solid list of goals, I was more aware than in previous attempts that achieving my goals was going to require an openness and a flexibility.

An example:

I always lay out a very rigid schedule with solid blocks of time for writing, and other blocks of time for business. In addition, I always lay out time for the "support disciplines," things like meditation, running, reading and journaling. By the time I get to the end of the first week I am already running about 36 hours behind my intended schedule. There's just too much to fit in. I get frustrated, disappointed in myself, and the stage begins to be se for failure and discouragement.

Last week, I began with the same kind of goals and the same kind of scheduling, but with the sense that the plans required flexibility if they were going to find their own place and their own rhythm.  So... instead of running four days a week last week (something that was a bit insane considering the fact that it's basically been two years since I last ran with any serious intent), I ran once, walked my full intended course another day and laid off the other two days. My plan now is to expand that practice each week until, by week 4, I am running four days a week and I can begin to expand the mileage in a way that I can continue to maintain it when I finish my 40 days (Big Sur Marathon here I come... again!).

The same went for my writing discipline. Instead of rigidly locking into my intended 20 hours/week right from the start, I gave myself some room to adjust. I continue to hold the ultimate goal as the place I want to be before the end of the program, but easing into it seems to be working more effectively.

So that's where I am beginning this second week. I have now laid a pretty solid foundation. I have laid out my goals, evaluated them, adjusted them and started working on every one (well every one except learning French, but that will start this week).

Unlike second weeks in the past, I start this second without fretting over what I didn't accomplish, but instead looking toward the expansion of last week's goals into the bigger space of this week on the way to the weeks following (not looking at where I am, but where I'll be).

What I am discovering right off the bat is that I already feel stronger, better, and more prepared to take on the next step.