Being On Purpose
Join Arminda for story-time as she reads one of her favorite books to listeners called Ish by author, Peter H. Reynolds.
. . . letting go of what’s “supposed” to be and showing up in our own ish way can be liberating and exciting. What would that look like for you?
Loving you,
arminda
Ever feel like something is happening or thoughts are occurring or conversations are being had without you?
You aren’t a procrastinator.
Procrastination isn’t a “thing.”
Procrastination is nothing more than a story you’ve made up (or believed someone else’s story) about yourself to explain your reason for not doing something you just don’t want to do.
If something keeps getting pushed to tomorrow’s To-Do List, that’s simply an opportunity for you to slow down and gather more information.
Ask yourself:
Why am I not completing this task, project or assignment?
Answer yourself honestly.
You will uncover the reason behind your procrastination story and that reason may look like this:
it’s not fun
it’s tedious
it’s too big
it’s not my responsibility
it’s hard
it’s complicated
Or any number of reasons I’ve left off this incomplete list.
Next ask:
How can I love this project?
How can I have fun with it?
How can I change my story about this task?
When we slow ourselves down long enough to truly look at what’s not being done we see we are not the problem. Our relationship with our story about ourselves is the problem.
Rewrite your story so that the protagonist is the conquerer of tasks and not the other way around.
Happy endings are a choice.
But only every time.
Remember you are powerful.
Remember to breathe to create space between you and whatever information you receive.
Remember it’s all just information.
Remember you are not a noun, but a verb in action.
Remember you invent exactly who you want to be every single day.
Remember nothing about you is fixed; you are in constant flux.
Remember you are the one writing your own story.
I believe you’ve got this and I believe in you.
Recently I had a conversation with a high school student about the movie Alice in Wonderland. We shared a moment discussing the merits of the casting and the plot and how we both highly recommend the film to others. I suggested he might be interested in reading a blog post I wrote after seeing the movie.
Here’s where the conversation got interesting. For me, at least.
He said, “Oh, so you’re a writer?!”
“Ummm. Yeah, I guess you could say that.” I responded with some obvious hesitation.
I froze. How to respond? A writer? Me? Aren’t writers people like Orson Scott Card or Debra Monroe? But me? Not so much. I only write because I have to get these thoughts inside my head outside or all the words and thoughts and ideas tripping and bumping into each other in their frenzy to get to the page keep me awake when I know – I know I should really be asleep.
I decided to reread my own blog post. The very one I recommended to him. In it, I challenged myself to explore my muchness – my personal reservoir of unlimited potential. It occurs to me that I wasn’t following my own advice. In my very hesitation I limited an opportunity to grow myself because of my denial to accept I can be whatever I choose.
Do not let the things that matter most be at the mercy of the things that matter least. Do not squander your time.
While this thought is not an Arminda original – it is one of my life mottos because each of us only has so much time to be and to create the story we want to live.
Yes. I am a writer. And I’m writing my own story because I can.