Creating with intention
This is the best piece of advice I have received: If you’re planning on a miracle, you don’t have a plan.
A large sum of money that suddenly comes into your possession. A phone call from a famous person who wants to interview you. A perfect press announcement in the nation’s most popular newspaper. A prize.
Plan on making your own miracle. You’ll be a lot more successful that way.
What if nobody comes? If your product isn’t well received? If you get one bad review after the next?
What if you thrill five people? And those five people are so impressed by your work that they tell their friends. Then five more people try your services or show up to your event or read your book. And out of those five, two people are so deeply moved that they share with their friends.
That’s how movements begin.
This is very different from the fast-track to fame we so often read about. It is difficult to catapult to the top of the “best list,” to become the richest and most sought after in one swoop. But slowly, with time, your work can amass a following.
The question is whether you have the patience to see it through. Can you delight in pleasing five people instead of 50? 1,000?
Your work is your art. Five people could mean success.
What are the habits that define you? What are the actions that you take every day, no matter what? What are your “non-negotiables,” aspects of your day that you refuse to compromise, day in and day out?
Now…what do you want to change?
In one week, I challenge you to bring more awareness to your daily routine and incorporate a new element that supports your health and wellbeing. (What exactly that “new element” is, I’ll leave up to you.)
Day 1. Record your day. Observe your habits, places you unknowingly spend time. Certain rituals may occupy your days. Don’t judge, simply note your routine in a journal.
Day 2. Add something new. Drink hot water with lemon and honey first thing in the morning. Commit to a twenty-minute online yoga video. Go for a walk when you return home in the evening. Notice how this addition makes you feel.
Day 3. Repeat the same deliberate action you performed yesterday and aim to repeat it for the next four days.
Day 4. Reward yourself for your new commitment and treat yourself to something “out of the ordinary,” something that feels good. Dawdle over your morning coffee. Settle into a cozy café with a newspaper. Stop for a scoop of ice cream after work.
Day 5. Encourage someone else. Now that you are slowly filling your own cup, it is easier to support others. Say a positive word or publicly recognize a colleague’s work ethic. Notice how it feels to give.
Day 6. You may be tempted to “skip” whatever habit you committed to. Don’t. Write down any resistance you might have, note any obstacles that seem to get in the way of your own self-care: negative thinking, hectic scheduling, boredom, apathy. Keep going.
Day 7. Small actions create a ripple effect. Consistency builds over time and slowly, more discipline, more thoughtfulness, and more ease will come into your life. Decide what you want to invite in. Continue your “new element,” or try something else for the next seven days.
Do you power down your devices or put them to sleep? Are your machines and electronics constantly running or do you turn them off to conserve energy?
What about yourself?
When was the last time you gave yourself a day to “switch off” — a day disconnected from alerts and email dings and calendar reminders. A day powered down and turned inward to reflect and enjoy the people around you.
Schedule one day this week for a “digital detox.” Your smartphone can wait and whatever email arrives in your inbox will be there tomorrow.
Extend the life of your battery. Power down.
What would you do if there were no obstacles?
If money and time were not considerations?
If you knew you would not fail?
Your playing small serves no one.
We try to get out of uncomfortable moments fast — moments when we feel like frauds and failures and disappointments. But these moments are teachers, there to help you ask questions and sort through your most difficult, persisting views about yourself and the way the world works.
It’s tempting to race past boredom, to distract yourself from insecurities, to run from uncertainty.
Try to sit with those moments when you don’t know all the answers. Sit quietly and listen softly. The answers will come.