Monday, January 23, 2017

52 Lists - January 8 through 14

This week's list was a hard one for me: List all the routines in your personal life an work.

I don't feel like I have a lot of "routines." I have habits and traditions and rituals, but they don't really feel like routines. When I checked in with Jenn, though, she encouraged me to think of these things as routines and include them in the list. Here's what I came up with:

  • Morning coffee when I'm getting ready for work
  • Taking walks during work breaks
  • Saturday morning workouts
  • Weeknights at Life Time Fitness
  • Weekday morning work chats (I have some great colleagues)
  • Working from home on Mondays and Fridays
  • Annual Christmas decorating (at home and at church)
  • Working out (um ... that's in there a lot. I'm trying to love it more these days.)
  • Breakfast after Saturday morning workouts
A lot of my routines center around working out or work itself. I think that's because we tend to use those appointment-like habits as the framework around which we build the rest of our life. So, that's where most of my routines come from.

The second part of this list was to circle the routines that bring joy and crossing out the ones you don't like. I didn't cross out any, because honestly there's nothing on here that I dislike; however, it would appear the ones that involve food or coffee rank toward the top. 

You're not surprised at all, are you?

Routines are tricky business, because the word itself doesn't feel inherently positive. I'd like to introduce some new ones into my world, but I think of them more as rituals. Things I'm going to be trying over the next few weeks (maybe to become a habit by late February?) are tea before bedtime and a short yoga flow in the morning.

What about you? Are there any routines you'd like to add to your list that aren't there yet?


Saturday, January 14, 2017

52 Lists - January 1 through 7

Back in September, my sister Jennifer and I bought the same book - 52 Lists for Happiness by Moorea Seal. We thought it might be fun to work on the lists and compare notes. I thought it might also be fun to share the process throughout 2017. Is there anything more worthy of a weekly commitment than the pursuit of happiness?

List one is "What makes you happy right now?" I was fortunate to be writing out this list in Florida, and from a balcony of a cruise ship. Pretty sweet arrangement, and it shows through in my list. Here's a sampling of what's on my list:
  • Seeing Goofy, Pluto, Donald and Minnie
  • Really good chocolatea
  • A great cup of coffee
  • Netflix
  • Baths
  • Knitting
  • The perfect smell on a winter day
Once this list is final, the next step is to ask yourself, "how often do I actually get to experience these things?" Then, the idea is to pick one thing from the list and work on making it a daily practice. So, I'm planning to start each day with a great cup of coffee (I do this most days, anyway) and end each day with a great piece of chocolate. Decadence, book-ending my days.

So, come on in. Make your own list. We have all year.