Dare I share this?

I am notorious for starting something, blogging about it, and not following through with it. How many Whole 30’s, or Whole 21’s have there been? UGH.

I hate not having any follow-through.

But here I go again! Back on the horse.

Here goes…

I’ve been reading Julia Cameron’s life-changing book: The Artist’s Way. I have one more chapter left, and then I want to embarque on a little one-year challenge for myself.

Gee, one year used to seem so incredibly long! But this little pandemic we’ve been experiencing has changed the concept of time for me.

Friends, 2020 is HALF OVER. How on earth did that happen?

Here’s my year-long challenge:

For as long as I can remember, I have been writing in a diary, or journal. Most days it starts out with dreams and thoughts and gratitude lists. Then it quickly goes into a to-do list, because I might be an artist, but I’m also Type A. Interesting combo.

I can honestly say that my to-do lists have consistently included three goals, only about, ummm, 100% of the time.

The three goals?

1. I crave journaling. When you love to journal SO much that you write in a journal that you need to journal? That says something.
2. I cannot figure out exercise. Even as a young child, I tried and tried to get into exercising, mostly to no avail. I felt completely not welcome in the active world, but I noticed, at an early age, that people who were fit and active seemed to be more confident, less depressed, and more in control of their emotions ~ all the things I was already struggling with.
3. Practicing is so valuable to me. It’s a relationship with your artist-self and actually quite meditative. I’ve been practicing some kind of instrument since I was 6 years old, so you do the math. No, I’ll do it for you. It’s exactly FORTY YEARS of writing down on a to-do list that I need to practice. Now, obviously, I have succeeded a good portion of the time, but not nearly as much as I would like to, and not for the sake of connecting with my inner artist (as Julia Cameron puts it). I learned how to play the violin, piano, and then became a professional singer. Clearly there has been some practicing going on. But daily? No. Not daily. Not a routine I can be proud of. Not a routine that I can rely on for spiritual and artistic growth. That’s what I’m looking for.

Because I’m a total nerd, I’d like to rename these three daily practices:

THE THREE M’S.

1. MORNING PAGES: a very important tool in The Artist’s Way. The idea is to dump all of your worries and excitements and feelings onto three pages, no matter how ridiculous or banal. This helps clear your mind and prepare it for the fullest artist’s life. It’s basically journaling 2.0. I’ll do the morning pages, but blogging about this also counts toward my daily routine.
2. MOVE: I want to make sure I don’t use the word exercise, which implies to me that I will lose weight, become stronger, and will be doing very impressive activities, like HIIT training, or Bikram Yoga. Yeah, I’m that girl. I go waaaaay too far, waaaay too soon. It’s never, ever enough. I work out for 6 weeks, and completely freak out because I don’t see a change in my body. I try to add more weights and more sweating and more more more. And then I burn out and lay down and forget all about this exercise thing. It will be very tough for me to stick to simple activities every single day, but maybe calling it MOVING will help just a bit….
3. MUSIC: I prefer this word, too, because it is all-encompassing. If, instead of practicing piano, I listen to an opera singer, that counts! But I’ve always been a person who would rather make the music myself. I’m not a classical music listener, per se. I’m ready to start singing every day, and picking up my violin again. Let’s do this!

I don’t want to come to the end of my life and say that I never really conquered these three “pie-in-the-sky” goals. I genuinely have ALWAYS believed that I could achieve balance if I put these three things first.

Do you have something you’d like to do every day for a year? Is this appealing to you? (I accidentally just wrote “appalling” instead of appealing! Freudian slip? AAAAGH!)

Let’s think of it this way ~ we can get busy trying to make ourselves better, instead of waiting impatiently for our world to go back to normal!

If you want to do something every day for one year, please share in the comments!!!

See you August 1st!