Get in shape girl!....tomorrow...no today!

Okay so yesterday I was so pumped about a newly organized life where I'd fill every ounce of time with productivity. I'd get up early and use every ounce of daylight for good. Yep I was pretty excited about life. So excited that it was hard to fall asleep last night. I was thinking of all the good things I was going to be involved in. It kind of felt like Christmas Eve! Well friends, it was no jolly Christmas morning. The only gift I got was from Mother Nature. Yes, all that previous excitement went straight down the tube when I rolled over to turn my alarm clock off and felt the cramps eeking their way into my body. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. But I braved the day! I was actually more productive than most days in the past, but still wasn't as effective as I would've liked to be. But hey, I'm giving myself a pat on the back anyways. I feel pretty good for doing as much as I did while feeling like a bloated cow who just wanted to go home, get in her pjs, grab a gallon of ice-cream, and watch a sappy chick flick. Because of the simple fact that I didn't give into temptation and kept my focus primarily on schoolwork, I'll consider it a productive day.

In relation to this dilemma, I realized that life is ALWAYS going to throw you crazy curve balls, whether they be random or monthly occurrences. Because of this, it's easy to criticize yourself and say you "just didn't do enough today" because you maybe didn't accomplish all the things that you had previously scheduled. I once was a pro at this...a few years back I used to write out huge/highly unrealistic to-do lists of all the things I wanted to accomplish in a certain period of time. Obviously I could never finish them all. Either something would distract me from doing them or I would just get intimidated with the overwhelming demand that I had voluntarily placed on myself; I would avoid it because I knew I couldn't do it all so why even try? and that would leave me feeling like a complete failure. If any of you are guilty of this, STOP IT! It is so unrealistic, unfair to yourself, and actually less productive.

But at the same time, don't jump to the other extreme of not setting any goals or forming lists of some sort. How the heck would we ever progress if we didn't push ourselves every now and then? So that's why I suggest forming a small list of To-Do's. If your list is over ten things, shave it in half. Right now I'm focusing on six specific goals I want to work on at least 5 days a week. I'd like to do all six every day, but knowing myself and my history, I realize that some days just aren't going to allow that. So for now, if I get at least 3 of the 6 done in a day, I will consider it a good and productive day. Once I get comfortable with doing any 3 everyday and the idea has developed into a habit, I can then proceed to bumping it up to 4 a day, etc.

So yes, today was in fact productive because I accomplished three things on my pick-six list. I feel pretty satisfied and yes I'm still excited about life! Although I really could go for some ice-cream right now...