21 for 21 list I don’t know about you Hazel, but I love creating a list! For a number of years I have been creating a 100 list - based on the Create Your Shining Life books by Leonie Dawson. The basic idea was that you created a list of 100 tangible goals for the year. According to Leonie: 80 % of people do not think about goals. 16 % think about their goals but do not write them down. 3 % write down their goals. 1 % write down their goals AND regularly review them. So, guess which group are in the highest achievers? Yep that 1% of people writing down their goals and then checking in and charting their progress. However, creating a list of 100 things can be really daunting, particularly when you are starting out and I discovered via the Happier Podcast with Gretchen Rubin in 2018 the idea of creating a list of 18 things you could do in 2018, we’re moving into 2021 so this year you get 21 goals. Here's how to get started. 1. Write the numbers 1-21 in your journal or a note on your phone. 2. Write down goals you wish to accomplish it can be totally new things or things you just want to make space for in 2021. 3. Consider splitting bigger goals up, if you want to write a book might be write for an hour every day, research publishing options, get your manuscript proofread, publish your book. It helps to motivate you to check those things off one at a time. 4. Think big but keep it achievable my list last year included big things like starting the podcast with Hazel and little things like date nights with my hubby. 5. Keep it a live document and keep checking back in on it. These are aspirational goals, they are your goals and it’s totally okay to revisit, change and adapt. If 2020 taught us anything it was the importance of being able to pivot. 1. New Years Eve Review and Release. 2. Be more impeccable with my word (which ties into my Word of the Year that we discussed in last weeks episode. 3. Continue learning about herbalism. 4. Grow the The Wheel Podcast. 5. Get in the Habit Studio – Content creator and participant. 6. Volunteer with The Therapist Network. 7. Finish up my EFT training. 8. Glastonbury trip. 9. Collaborate more. 10. Enter more competitions. 11. Get Journal Journey to awakening your magic published. 12. Acrylic pouring. 13. Keep up Red Tent / Kent Goddess group / Conflab-ulous and Moon Journaling, the groups I love to facilitate and also make time to be an active participant in groups like Moon Circle and Maidstone Pagans!!! 14. Complete my ECDL. 15. Sign up to a new CPD course for September. 16. Theatre hopefully in real life or watching The Shows Must Go On 17. Social Media Free Days 18. More board games 19. Hand write letters 20. Soul Writing 21. Tech Tuesdays & Blogging Accountability I love talking to people about the WOTY's and 21 for 21 lists so Claire Kehily from Walking With My Goddess invited me to chat about it on her Vlog - Talking With My Goddess.
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heartledjournalcoach.weebly.com/word-of-the-year.htmlHave you picked a “WOTY” before? Chances are that if you hang around with me that you have! However, if you are scratching your head wondering what the heck is a “WOTY” let me explain. “WOTY” stands for “Word Of The Year”. This for many years now I have used a "WOTY" to replace New Year’s Resolutions. It is a single word that will be your focus and anchor for the year ahead.
You can use that word to set your goals and intentions for the following year. My “WOTY” for 2020 was Kaizen. It's a Japanese noun meaning "good change" it encompasses making small consistent changes. I came across it initially in the Moment magazine. It then showed up in the Wellbeing Book Club book we were reading in November, "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari". I did not rate the book, but they had did have a chapter on Kaizen. My “WOTY” was gradually revealing itself to me. I hoped that by embracing this word for 2020 that I could release my "boom or bust" thinking. I had hoped to use it to break down bigger goals into smaller steps and make small, regular progress towards them. Not huge gestures but consistent, incremental changes. In practice this looked like setting aside an hour a day for self-maintenance. I did not have to be an hour all in one go. It might have been 15 minutes of yoga in the morning, 20 minutes of self-development or spiritual reading, 10 minutes of meditation and 15 minutes of creative writing and updating my gratitude list. During lockdown I also evolved a daily haiku writing habit as a way of recording my experiences of Covid. Part of my “boom or bust” thinking had been that every year for 6 years I have been participating in National Poetry Writing Month and created a poem a day, every day for the month of April. I have succeeded in that but then find myself writing no other poetry for the rest of the year. My “Isolation Haikus” as I called them, have encouraged me to write a small poem daily and to date I am on a 266 streak of showing up to my creativity. I am also sharing those poems to my Instagram account and meeting a whole community of haiku writers. As a “Word Of The Year”, “Kaizen” has served me well. It has not totally inoculated me against the challenges that 2020 has brought, but it has helped me to think what small, positive action I can take now. I cannot control Covid, but I can acknowledge how I feel and choose how I will react. This year saw me develop a weekly Covid Check-In group, Confab-ulous and take all of my groups online (Folkestone Red Tent, Kent Goddess Group, Folkestone Moon Journaling & Vision Boards Group, Literary Ladies Wellbeing Book Club). I am also collaborating with Sue Allworth of Authentic Smile and MBS Summits Online and participated in a number of virtual wellbeing events and am an in-house presenter in the shiny new Get In The Habit Studio. A virtual community centre where you can find a community and activities such as meditation, yoga, and chakra dancing. This year I am still percolating on my “Word Of The Year” but I think it might be “IMPECCABLE”. One of the most influential books that I have read in recent years is the “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. The Four agreements are: 1) Use your words impeccably. 2) Don’t take anything personally. 3) Don’t make assumptions. 4) Always do your best. These agreements are a way of living differently and finding greater peace and happiness. This year I want to go deep with exploring that first agreement and being more impeccable with my word. Don Miguel Ruiz says: "Be Impeccable with your word: speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love." I like to think of myself as a non-judgemental person, but as the challenges of Covid have gone on I have noticed that I am becoming a little bit Miss Jenny Judgemental Judge Pants. When I hear myself speak sometimes, both about myself and others I do not always like what I am hearing. When I sit and compassionately observe that I think I hear tiredness and frustration and that judgement and gossip are helping me to feel more in control, but later comes the guilt and recrimination. I hope this invitation to be impeccable will help me to bring a little more kindness and compassion back. Having a “WOTY” helps me to focus my goals, it is that anchor for my intentions. To help you with that process of anchoring make sure you keep your word in places were you will regularly see it, make it the screen saver for your phone or PC, a post-it on the kettle and write it big in the front of your journal. To help you formulate your “Word Of The Year” pop on over to https://heartledjournalcoach.weebly.com/word-of-the-year.html to get a FREE digital PDF WOTY planner. Would love to hear about your journey with your WOTY so connect with me on Facebook www.facebook.com/allheartled 1. What was the purpose of this book (eg, to teach, to entertain). I think that the purpose of Louise Hay’s book You Can Heal Your Life is to help the reader learn about possible metaphysical causes to illness. To help the reader consider the limiting believes that were absorbed in childhood and how to release them. Louise also offers the reader several tools to change the readers thinking, inner child work, mirror work, positive affirmations and visualisations. 2. If this book was intended to teach the reader something, did it succeed? Was something learned from reading this book, if so what? If not, why did the book failed as a teaching tool? Louise’s primary message is that we are not a helpless victim to our own thoughts, she proposes “It’s only a thought and a thought can be changed”. I think Louise is successful inspiring people to look at their own negative thinking patterns and demonstrating ways in which the reader can unpick them and lovingly release them without assigning blame or guilt. “You have the power to heal your life, and you need to know that. We think so often that we are helpless, but we’re not. We always have the power of our minds…Claim and consciously use your power.” Louise Hay 3. Was there a specific passage that had left an impression, good or bad? Share the passage and its effect. Louise supports the notion that we choose our parents: “I Believe That We Choose Our Parents. Each one of us decides to incarnate upon this planet at a particular point in time and space. We have chosen to come here to learn a particular lesson that will advance us upon our spiritual, evolutionary pathway. We choose our sex, our color, our country, and then we look around for the particular set of parents who will mirror the pattern we are bringing in to work on in this lifetime. Then, when we grow up, we usually point our fingers accusingly at our parents and whimper, "You did it to me." But really, we chose them because they were perfect for what we wanted to work on overcoming.” Louise Hay If have witnessed that this idea can be really challenging to people. It’s a belief that I can subscribe to, but I know that people who have challenging childhoods can feel that this shifts the responsibility for negative childhood experiences onto the child. I don’t agree with that. I think that if we have a consciousness that incarnates again and again that it might have a wider perspective of positive and negative experiences. With our limited way of experiencing the world we seek our “pleasurable” and “positive” experiences and attempt to avoid “painful” or “negative” experiences. However, I know that I am more than the sum off all the experiences that I have had. It resonates with me that we might choose from a huge smorgasbord of experiences. I know that sometimes my greatest opportunities for development have come from more challenging experiences which prompted me to grow. 4. Was the purpose of the book to bring to light an issue? If so, did it make the group more aware and knowledgeable about the particular issue? How did earlier opinions about the issue change after reading this book? The very first time I read You Can Heal Your Life, I was quite resistant to some of the ideas the book proposes. I thought that some of the suggestions for metaphysical causes were too simplistic. However, the book was often floating around my consciousness. When I had a break-through seizure in 2012 (I was diagnosed with epilepsy at 17, gained seizure control in my mid-twenties and 2 years later was slowly weaned off anti-convulsants and was seizure free for over a decade). Louise suggests that the potential metaphysical causes of epilepsy are: A sense of persecution. Rejection of life. A feeling of great struggle. Self-violence. Louise Hay When I look back at what was going on in my life when my breakthrough seizure occurred, I was really struggling at work. I wasn’t getting the support that I needed and the place where I worked couldn’t operate as we were so short staffed. I worked very long hours and struggled to take time off. When the seizures re-occurred, I was forced to stop. I eventually resigned from a management position and reduced my hours. 5. If the book addressed an issue, did the author cover both sides of the topic fairly and thoroughly or did the book appear to be biased, solely written to promote the author's own agenda? I think that the book illustrates Louise’s beliefs. I personally subscribe a lot to what Louise Hay advocates; however, I think that we need to look at our bodies holistically. While Louise doesn’t say suggest that people completely reject Western medicine and is a proponent of complimentary therapy and nutrition, I think that sometimes we are just ill without automatically subscribing to a metaphysical cause. I think we’re recurring patterns are showing up in our lives that we can really benefit from considering what You Can Heal Your Life suggests as a possible foundation for “dis-ease”. I think that there is a real mind, body and spirit connection and that the tools that Louise suggests can really be beneficial. 6. After reading the book, has the group's interest been piqued about the subject matter? If so, would the group consider reading more on the topic in the future? The group were really intrigued by the book. Some of the ladies were familiar with some of the concepts and lots of us tried some of the techniques written in the book. When I really connected with Louise Hay’s philosophy in 2016, I was inspired to go an undertake the You Can Heal Your Life Teacher Training and it really was a transformative experience. Mirror work has improved the way that I relate to my body. 7. The way a non-fiction book is written can impact a reader's enjoyment and understanding of it. Was the book written in a way that was easily accessible? Did the language make the group lose interest in something that would have otherwise been an exciting subject? Were unfamiliar terms and concepts explained? Were there plenty of visuals to reinforce the subject matter and were they helpful? The book did not contain a lot of visuals, but the tools that Louise recommends are really explained well. The book also contains a handy table of possible metaphysical causes for illness. 8. Did the author provide any pertinent web links for readers to use? If so, would the group consider visiting them? Louise Hay, is sadly no longer with us, but her website is still maintained. https://www.louisehay.com/ Louise’s legacy also consists of Hay House Publishing which is still the premiere New Thought publishing company. https://www.hayhouse.co.uk/ 9. Did the author provide a suggested reading list for further information on the topic? If so, would the group consider reading any of the suggestions? You Can Heal Your Life also has an extensive reading list and a comprehensive list of organisations to support with a myriad of health issues from addiction to grief. AuthorJenny Luddington. My word for 2018 is Dare I settled on dare as although I’m not a shrinking violet by any stretch of the imagination. I still have some fears. Mostly these are fears about investing in ‘me’. I started a business last year and haven’t invested in things like a website or business cards, because of some fairly limiting beliefs. I left full time employment as a manager of a youth centre. I had experienced a recurrence in a disability that had been in remission for over a decade. I had not had the support I needed and felt pressured into quitting when I moved from front line services to do a desk job. I was successful in gaining part-time employment working as a job coach with young people with learning disabilities. It’s a job I adore and gives me a lot of satisfaction. It also helped me become a little bit braver. When my disability reoccurred I began to play it safe. I was experiencing seizures and I was using the Access to Work scheme to get taxis to work. For a time it was a life safer, it kept me physically safe. However, it also began to shrink my world. I was only going to work or out when I had a friend or family member to act as a ‘minder’. So during this time to beliefs began to form. Firstly that I wasn’t safe and secondly I began to feel guilty that my earning potential had decreased. This manifested in the fear of investing in ‘me’ and my business. I am confident that by choosing Dare as my word of the year I can release these fears. I have spent some time this week journaling about how this word will manifest in my life so that I can live, more daringly. 1. I will release my fears around safety; I travel most places by public transport. This may not sound super sexy or exciting, but believe me when you find yourself practically housebound a disability bus pass is like a magic carpet. I have better seizure control which helps, but also I realised that the risk of having a seizure out is no higher than having a seizure at home. I’ve got a seizure app on my phone and I tell people where I’m going and my ETA, so if I go missing in action I can be tracked. 2. I will give myself permission to invest in myself. I have enough abundance in my life. If I build a website my family really aren’t going to starve. I will also enhance my prospects if I better advertise myself and my services. In all areas of my life I will give myself permission to act I only need my own consent. 3. I will start now. I will not wait until all my ducks are in a row. So often we procrastinate because we feel that everything has to be perfect before we act. Last year I started blogging with my friend Sue Allsworth from Authentic Smile. We didn’t know exactly what we were doing. We were learning as we went. We generally did one take without any editing. What we did do is have a lot of fun while we explored how it worked. 4. I will break out of my comfort zone. I’ve always known this is where growth and happiness happens. I would never have left youth work. It took being pushed out and being incredibly unhappy to make me take a leap of faith. I love the work I do now and I love running my own business, groups and circles. 5. Finally I will surround myself with daring, fearless and valiant hearted people. Nothing helps you cultivate boldness and audacity like having people who inspire you with their actions and attitudes. People who rise to a challenge, seek out new experiences support you to do the same. |
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AuthorJenny Luddington, Journal Coach & Mentor Archives
December 2020
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