Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend it with 2 of my favorite women as we ate nurioushing food, talked about spiritual development and of course laughed. In the course of our discussion the topic of expectation came up and I have felt compelled to blog about it ever since (thanks Andrea 😉
For me today was full of expectation. As I have written my professional situation has changed and I am fortunate enough to be following my bliss of writing, building my businesses and spending time with my daughter-all in a beautiful easy flow of a day. (Alright I took a little poetic prose there but let us just say I finally feel that I am in the driver’s seat when it comes to my day)
So what has my struggle been? To find a routine that allows me ease and flexibility but also let’s me feel that I have accomplished all of my goals at the end of each day-both of which are very important to me.
I have written on my business blog about how important calendar management is but for some reason was never able to implement it outside of the work arena. Many times I would write out a routine that would allow me to accomplish all of the things I loved to do but the truth was they weren’t even close to being realistic.
I have heard often that if you don’t have expectations you won’t be dissappointed however I feel that expectations are part of what moves us forward. The truth is that you need to first know yourself so that you can then formulate realistic expectations-so that is what I did last night.
I sat, as I had done thousands of times before with my pen and paper and wrote out what I wanted to accomplish in my morning so that my day could start on an upswing. What things needed to be done for me so that I could then in turn do all of the things that needed to be done.
Then of course the tricky part of “and I need to get up at what time?” Since I am not naturallly a morning person when I realized I had to get up at 6am a good 3 hours earlier than I have been-I knew that most likely this would take some time. So I set my alarm for 6am and then another for 7:30 and tried to not be dissappointed when I woke at 8am. “It’s a start.” I told myself and set about doing the things I could accomplish before my daughter woke.
And you know what? I did them all.
Perhaps not in the grand, elaborate way that my writer’s mind had planned but I got everything I needed done, including writing this blog.
So perhaps it is not that we need to forgo having expectations but perhaps we need to first look at the situation and people involved, know them, and without judgement see how we can move forward towards the next phase in our life?
Or maybe I just need to start going to bed before midnight 😉
May your day exceed your expectations!
I definitely suggest going to be earlier! I was one to have a real problem getting up in the morning as well. And yes, I did tend to stay up until midnight.
Since moving to Hawaii I found myself going to be earlier. I'm lucky, its a slow, healing Island. It just brings it on naturally to go sleep when the lights go down.
Now I get up at 6 and I have so many things done by 9 that I have such a great feeling of accomplishment, the rest of the day just goes even better.
It's a wonderful new habit!
Aloha wags!
Oh if only I could get to bed earlier! I have gotten out of the habit, but so wish to start it again! I feel more organized when I am able to get up just a little earlier than the kids and have some quiet time to myself.
Interesting post, Michele.
I have an interesting relationship with expectations: I try to avoid having too many of them because I've learned that I never know what's around the corner, and I often can't control everything.
I do, however, set intentions, and write out what I want to accomplish each day (well, OK, *most* days), and I usually find I get the stuff I actually *need* to get done crossed off my list.
I had to smile at your description of setting the alarm early… I'm unusual in that I *am* a morning person (my alarm usually goes off at 5am)… but I also fade pretty quickly at night, so I guess it's very much swings and roundabouts.
And well done on getting everything you wanted to do done!
Great post Michelle. As soon as the clocks change for winter here in the UK I am unable to get up early – getting up hours before the sun rises, in the cold and dark is too much for someone who is not a natural early bird. Any tips on how to deal with this would be really fab, Jo ♥
"expectations are part of what moves us forward" Dingdingding! This is soooo true. Expectations in the form of hope is how we continue to keep doing the work without getting bogged down in the nasties that happen along the way. So glad you found this little piece of truth and helped you excel!