Showing Up - For Yourself

When I was little my dad always said:

Focus on having a good minute. A good minute turns into a good hour. A good hour a good day. A good week a good month and sooner or later, you had a great year

Maybe I was lucky because I grew up with a dad doing all the journalling and power of positivity stuff before it was a "thing". I would wake up and he would be writing his goals out 10 times. If he wasn't doing that, he was doing Tai Chi - regardless - the guy was (and still is) ahead of his time. I would ask what he was doing and he would explain setting his intention and then he would reiterate the above quote.

I'm not sure when that all got away from me but it certainly did. Not in an all at once kind of way but in the slow drip then your pipes are rotten kinda way. You work and you're busy, you have friends and want to see people, you get busy, have kids, you have their life, things get incredibly busy! Who has time to do all the things you want to do? It becomes a bit of a mantra "There are so many things I would do if I had the time"! And we all shrug and walk away.

I found myself in one of these lulls recently. I was a little chubbier than I wanted, not as dialled into my kids as I wanted, not nearly as well-read as I like to be. I was just kinda existing. Which as far as I'm concerned, is the worst way to be.

Then, you know how when you're open to things, things sort of fall to place?

That happened to me.

I was watching a LinkedIn Learning course (Not paid for by LI but technically maybe because I work there? Anyway....I digress) I was watching a course and something popped in about the 5 minute journal. As someone who already journals, I thought how much could prescriptive journaling help? But I decided it give it a shot.

For those who don't know (or who are late to the game like me) the idea is it makes journalling super easy. First thing when you wake up you write:

• 3 things you're grateful for
• 3 things you want to accomplish that day
• A mantra for the day

Then at night, you check in on 3 things you accomplished that day and something that would have made the day better.

I didn't think it would work but I truly believe this post would not be up if I didn't write down that I wanted to do it. For 3 days in a row I wrote I wanted to write an article. And for 3 days, I had to admit it wasn't done. Finally, last night, not being able to face myself again - I sat down and did it.

Seriously, the reality of facing the fact I broke the commitment to myself was enough to get me to do it. It was kinda like when you were a teenager and had to go home and tell your parents you did something stupid - you make sure you don't do it again if only so you don't have to have that conversation.

I'm all for "showing up" and being your "authentic self" and insert more buzz words here. But sometimes, it's just hard. This is my PSA for you that if you're in a lull, try this 5-minute journal. You may be showing up for yourself a whole lot more than you knew you could.