On getting derailed from a healthy habit

It’s amazing how easy it is to get out of a well-established habit. (Kind of depressing, actually.)

There was a point in my life where I got up at 5:00am every day. By choice.

This now seems like my worst nightmare.

But at the time I lived with twelve girls and I reeeeaaalllly liked to get my shower in first and have some quiet space to myself. (What’s a half-introverted girl to do?!)

When I started this blog it was for many reasons. One of them – the main one – was to help establish a healthy discipline of regular, free writing.

I happily did this every day for six months. (It was very, very rare for me to miss a day.)

Not only did I do it every day, I LOVED IT.

Then the force that was our July hit and I just couldn’t do it. (Fine, there’s grace for that.)

But now life is back to normal and I’m finding it sooo hard to get back to the every day.

I want to – I love and enjoy writing! I have time to – who can’t find 5 minutes in “normal” circumstances?!

So….. what’s the problem here?

I’m not sure.

But it’s a little frightening for me to see just how quickly and easily a well-cultivated habit (discipline) can be derailed if we’re not careful.

What’s a goal-oriented girl to do?

Well, keep on trying to get back on track I suppose.

 

Q for you: Surely you’ve had a good habit fall to the wayside at one point or another. What helped you to get back on track?

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited.

Six months. Almost.

I thought it time for a little check-in related to this blog.

Hard to imagine that it’s been almost half a year since I started this crazy five-minute a day project.

I’m so glad I did. Some of my favorite writing has come in the moments before bed in this little space.

Until recently, I had not missed a day. That alone makes me happy – shows that I’m growing in discipline.

This month has been harder. I think I’ve missed four days now. Maybe five.

But instead of getting cranky about it, I’ve decided to be gracious to myself.

I’m in the throes of life with littles right now and to say I’m tired is an understatement.

Ultimately, I’m proud that I’ve made it this far.

I’ve done more writing on a consistent basis here than I ever could have in another format.

It’s been liberating to not have a focus or a niche.

And it’s been liberating to not worry about editing.

Mostly, it’s just been liberating to write. (Cuz I am a writer, you know.)

Six more months to go with this project.

Can I do it?

I think yes.

STOP.

 

Q for you: What have you accomplished lately that’s been hard but makes you proud?

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited. 

Is it worth trading a day of your life?

I read this quote on Pinterest the other day. It said something like: “What are you going to do today? Is it worth trading a day of your life for?”

Wow.

How’s that for a reality check?

Truthfully, there are many days where I’m not living well, as in living intentionally, living on purpose, living in the fullness of life that’s available to me.

Too often, I’m doing my best to balance and juggle and survive…

Can I make it to nap time? Can we just get through the dinner hour? Oh bedtime, where are you? Oh WEEKEND where are you?

But this—this apple-slicing, block-stacking, bum-wiping, shoe-tying, laundry-folding, dishwasher-loading day—is reality. (My current reality at least.)

It is life in motion. Already happening. Not waiting for anyone.

I don’t like to get to the end of the week and think, what exactly did I do?

Granted, being an at-home mom makes my successes difficult to quantify, but even if I can’t see immediate fruti of my labor and investment, I still have a fairly good idea whether I’m doing a good job living or not.

So this is something I’m constantly working on. Or maybe even not working at, but trying to rest in…. This grace that comes from actually being present in the moment. Living my days on purpose.

I want to be an old lady that looks back on life and says, Mmmmmm, that was one glorious life I lived.

But I also want to be a young woman saying the same thing.

What have I done today that was worth trading a day of my life for? And what about tomorrow?

 

STOP.

 

Q for you: How are you spending your days? Is what you did today worth trading a day of your life for?

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | five minutes a day, unedited
Adriel also writes on parenting & motherhood at The Mommyhood Memos.

 

Putting on my home manager’s hat

This year I decided to make my new year’s goals public.

I did that because I thought it would be good for me. I thought it might make them more real, help me to be accountable, and… maybe my pride (not wanting to fail publically) would help me follow through.

The good thing abotu goals is that they are something you work towards.

I dsort of think of resolutions as something you have to do right, right off the bat. And if yo fail, well then, you fail. (Who likes to fail?)

Whereas goals you work toward.

You see, if’ I’ve met all my goals byt eh end of the year then great. I win.

If I meet them sooner (and stick to them) well then I win even bigger.

But either way it’s totally achievable that i can win. I mean grow. That’s what i really want – to grow. (And to win.)

One of my goals is to get better organized when it comes to household stuff.

I’m naturally fairly organized. But I’m not a natural housewife, er, home manager.

By nature I’m a home winger. (Um, that means I wing it. Yes, I made that up.)

I stayed up late tonight working on charts and lists and all sorts of things to help me be more organized. I made three weeks worth of menus, including shopping lists. i made a weekly cleaning chart. A monthly cleaning chart. A daily planner with some goals in it. (ie shower and eat and make my bed and star the laundry before 10am each mrning. I know, profound, right? Baby steps people.)

I spent four hours getting organized. Four. Hours.

Hard, but good. Ithink it will help me simplify int he long run, which is what i want.

problem is I failed at one of my goals int eh process.

You see, one of my other goals is to go to bed by 10:30 each night… except for the ratre exception where I stay up later on purpose.

I guess maybe tonight i could say it was on purpose.

but really, it wasn’t. I had ano idea a few lists and charts would take me four hours.

Four hours.

And now my time is up.

Time’s up, and I’m tired.

But at least I’m organized.

STOP.

 

Q for you: What do you do/use to help you with your home organization?

 

Love,
A

P.S. No, that photo has nothing to do with this post. I just thought it was time for a photo and this was what I took on my phone today.

 

Click Clink Five is a blog by Adriel Booker. | Five minutes a day, unedited. | 2012 All rights reserved. | Adriel also writes on parenting and motherhood at The Mommyhood Memos.

Letting go

Day two of my ridiculous project. Or experiement. Or discipline. Or whatever I’m going to call it

I hope I don’t regret this.

Pushing “publish” on something unedited is not easy for me!! I like the craft of writing – writing and rewriting sentances. Making it better. Improving. But no chance of that here.

That’s good for me too. Learning to let go.

I bet I will learn lots of things (unesxpected things) through disicplining myself to write this way

Letting go. That’s got to be right up there at the top.

I think tomorrow i will decide what I’m going to write abotu before I sit down. At least that way it won’t feel so random. (What have I done? the thought of being boring online for all to see rubs my pride the wrong way,t hat’s for sure.)

Right now I can hear levi running around in the background “poo poo!” he’s saying. Apparently the kid is wanting to potty train himself before getting the green light from mom. In my mind, I don’t have time to potty train right now.

But I suppose there’s one thing I’ve learned in motherhood – kids rarely go according to plans and schedules. Try as I might.

And I’m okay with that – learning to be okay at least. (Again, letting go.)

January is a great time to think about the year ahead – to set new goals. I know many people don’t like resolutions, but I say rubbish. We all need a clean slate, a fresh chance at starting over every now an dhten, and turning the calendar to a new year seems to be the perfect time for that.

I have some goals fo the year ahead. But they’re still solidifying in my mind in their little categories: important, necessary, wishful thinking, realistic, faith-inspired.

Obviously I don’t like to fail, so I’m still weighing up which ones I will “adopt” as the real ones and which will stay on my “wishful thinking” shelf.

Darn timer.

STOP.

A new blog for a new day

click, clink, stream, stop.

I laid in bed awake last night – New Years Day – when I should have been sleeping. I was thinking about the year ahead and some of my goals and things I’d like to accomplish.

So many.

But one of the main things I really want to do is work on my discipline. There are lots of areas where I need to pull in the reigns: Meal planning, reading, writing, prayer, building in more couple time, getting my body moving.

But there is so little time. So few hours in the day.

I need things that will take me minutes, not hours.

To be a writer (or to get good at writing) I know that I need to write every day. And trust me, I’d like to. (Hello, I enjoy it.) But with a newborn (who’s maybe not even a newborn any more) and a VERY busy toddler, I can hardly find the time.

Because, you know, when they have their one time a day where their naps overlap… I want to be napping to. (My sanity.)

So I thought maybe I could start a new habit, a new blog. As time allows I’ll still wrote for the Memos, and for the Bookers in Missions, and the private ones for my kids, but this one will be different. More raw, more spontaneous. But spontaneous and disciplined both.

One where I set my timer and write for five minutes a day. FIVE ONLY. Every day. Stream-of-conscious. No editing. No time to to be “prefect”. No time for “just right”. No time to plan.

Just sit down and write. Nothing fancy. Just some words on paper.

Virtual paper.

Oh, and photos are allow. But only phone photos. Cuz I want to take more photos too… but not spend a thousand hours editing them. And i finally have a phone that takes phoyos. And i kinda love it.

So here I am, just a few seconds left. My first entry. Day one.

5 minutes. No more, no less. No editing. No subject off limits. No holds barred.

One year. Can I do it?? Can I follow through?? Can I be disicplined enough to stick to the “rules”?

Or will I change them later? who knows. I can. it’s my project. And i’ve definitely not thought this one through.

Just jumping on board. Super spontaneous. Hello, maybe stupid? Maybe brilliant?

We’ll see.

It might be boring. it might be random. It might be awesome. So freaking awesome.

i don’t know.

But I do know:

There will be spelling errors. There will be things that don’t flow. There will be words misused and missing and mangled. There will be bad punctuation. (Worse than I already have.) There will be…

TIME.

I went back and totally cheated. Added in a few phrases. Took two extra minutes. Day one – Fail.

Try again tomorrow. I’ll do better.

I can only get better. Right?

T I M E.

I probably shuld have googled my blog name before I chose it, huh? Yup, prolly should’ve.

What’s done is done. fast.

T I M E!  T I M E!!!

.S T O P.