Well, I’m going to call this experiment a success.
I’ve written something in here 30 days in a row.
That’s a clear victory, habit-wise.
Sure, every entry hasn’t been a gem.
And I didn’t always have a lot to say.
But I showed up and I did the thing.
Overall, it got easier to find things to talk about.
In fact, the real challenge was when I had ideas for a post that were too big for my time or my energy level.
And that’s something I want to work on a bit – figuring out how to handle the bigger ideas without wearing myself out.
In fact, that’s something I need to consider in most areas of my work – breaking down bigger tasks and ideas into smaller ones and working on them over time.
I’m going to keep writing daily but I’m going to think of a type of post for each day of the week. – to give myself a container to fill rather than trying to develop container and contents all at once.
I want a lot out of this month but I am trying to teach myself to add things slowly instead of trying to do everything all at once.
After all, I know that successful changes, new practices, come from starting small and building up.
BUT
I also know that jumping right into a bunch of new practices all at once feels good. I feel engaged and energetic and accomplished…until I run out of steam.
And despite the fact that I run out of steam EVERY SINGLE TIME, my brain still wants to chase that excited feeling of doing ALL OF THE THINGS.
Without the benefits of medication and experience, I would be planning to do more art, more writing, more exercise, more Taekwon-do, more house organizing, more everything all at once, starting right now, maybe half an hour of each, on top of what I already do each day.
It would be fun today but by the end of the week, I would be out of steam.
So, instead, I am layering all of those things into my life during May.
I will ‘touch’ each habit each day but only really focus on one at a time.
Let’s see how it goes.
My patio and trees are on the same plan that I am – the basics in place but we’ll add new things a little at a time and let them grow. Image description: The view from one corner of my patio. A lawn chair is directly across from me and beyond that there are trees that don’t have any leaves on them next to my red shed.
Sunflowers and daffodils are two of my favourites and I have always wanted to grow some of my own.
And while that seems like a straightforward thing to do, deciding to start planting flowers actually involves a fair number of steps and a bit of planning.
Thanks to ADHD, multiple step projects and long-term planning are two of my nemeses.
I’ve bought daffodil bulbs and then found myself in December with the bulbs still hanging in the bag in my shed.
And I’ve planted sunflowers two years in a row…too late for them to bloom.
But this year, thanks to a better level of meds and the resultant capacity to plan, I have planted sunflowers early enough.
Today, the seedlings peeked out of the soil!
(I’m doing container gardening, obviously!)
Image description: An terracotta coloured oblong flowerpot with dark soil inside, and a green seedling just starting to curl upwards.
