Goals, Baby Steps, and Accountability

With my alphabet soup of issues, disorders, and syndromes, it is very easy for me to get overwhelmed with all of my responsibilities with work, church, home, health, etc. The good news is that I'm usually pretty good about faking it around other people and still accomplishing what I have to, so most people don't know about the personal freaking out that is going on. Several months ago, I made a list of all the things that doctors, therapists, teachers, church leaders etc. said that I need to be doing every day and when I added up the time it was more than 24 hours. I can't do it all, but I can do more and gradually stretch myself toward those goals. I have found a plan that works for me, that allows me to feel like I'm accomplishing things and moving forward without feeling guilt--change that--without feeling as much guilt about the things I don't do.

Here's my plan:
On my fridge I have a list of 15 things that need to happen every day. Some are individual items and some are categories. For example, journaling and blogging count as the same item. I can't count it twice just because I blogged and wrote in my paper and pen journal. I started with a goal to do at least 3 items on the list everyday. I've gradually increased it to 7 items, but there are days that I do many more than that. Occasionally I even get the whole list. The important part is that I only have to do 7. Yes, there are days that it doesn't happen, but for the most part 7 is easy now, so I might be moving up to 8 soon.

The other great part is that I don't have to go all out with most of these. I can check off "doing the laundry" if I fold a few towels. The important part here is that I do some part of these items. Sometimes my scripture reading is one verse and sometimes that one verse leads to research on a topic and I take an hour to study. With all of these categories, doing a little usually gets me going and I can get more done than if I think about how big the task is and how long it will take to do it completely and perfectly.

So that's goals and baby steps. Now on to accountability. If I feel like I have to report to someone on something they want me to do, I end up resenting it. If I report on something that I want and am motivated to do, it keeps me on task. I recently started a practice journal on my other blog www.jmrvoicenotes.com. I want my students to practice more and at least make contact with their music every day. Since I want to do that too, I decided to blog about my practice so the students could check up on me and see if I'm doing what I said I would. Being accountable to friends is one thing, but being accountable to your students really puts the pressure on, in a good way. So far, I've done something everyday, and like the checklist on my fridge, the little things often lead to bigger things.

Based on the success of the practice journal model, I'm going to make myself accountable for something else on this blog--exercise. You wouldn't know it from looking at me, but I actually love to exercise. The problem is that by the time I take care of everything else, I often don't have the energy to get to the gym, let alone work out. So, I'm going with baby steps again. I get credit for exercising if I do any of these things: stretch, cardio at the gym, weights at the gym or home, physical therapy exercises, hallway laps between lessons, or dancing. Yes, I dance for exercise. No, you will never see it. I have the heart of a dancer, but even when I was really skinny, my body is just not proportioned well for dancing. I also have coordination issues. But, I love it, it's fun, and if the shades are closed I can do anything I want.

So my friends, there it is. The exercise journal might be kind of boring, so feel free to just notice that I did it and then skip it. However, if you see several paragraphs, you might want to check it out. I might have had a brilliant insight.