Are you getting distracted by “OPGs”? I sure am…

Mar 25, 2020 | Ryan's Blog

From my daily affirmation book today!

March 25, 2020 — Hello, Wednesday that feels like any other day…are your days blurring together, too?

Caveat: I am a creative. If you are super Type-A, this blogpost may turn you off! I will not be offended if you click away right now and go enjoy something else with your time. Now let’s get down to it…

Words that describe how I’ve been feeling during this New Normal:

rudderless
unsure
expansive
creative
relaxed
deflated
introspective
grateful
connected
thoughtful
unhurried
panicked
overwhelmed
concerned
overindulging
stripped down to the basics

We are in a period of constant re-adjustment: of our schedules, our priorities, our businesses, our basic day-to-day functioning. And there is literally no operations manual by which to be guided. Even if there was, it would change daily, if not hourly. Until 3 weeks ago, we were living in oblivion as to how RADICALLY our lives would be changed. No one saw this shizzshow coming.

Personally, in the Old Normal, I was focusing hard on honing my daily schedule and seeking to be on time and prepared and feeling pretty good about my strides there. Now, that feels unimportant. And frankly almost silly! How quickly things changed.

If you’re online at all, and likely you are, it’s not long before you’re getting lots of advice: (and I fully admit to being one of the advice-givers!)

keep to a schedule
exercise and eat well
get dressed (wear a bra LOL)
don’t watch too much news
find connection
make a meal plan
get lots of sleep
brush and floss your teeth
use this time for something important
meditate

At this point, I’ll refer back to my list above of the emotions I’m feeling during this period of “wtf happened to the world”… it runs the gamut.

I wonder if you’re feeling oppressed by OPGs? “Other People’s Goals”

You gotta do you right now. Everyone is at different mind-places multiple times a day. Until you’re ready to “keep to a schedule” or “find connection”, you’re going to drill yourself down thinking, “keep to a schedule? but I just can’t right now!” Give me a few hours. “Find connection? Okay.” Then you spend 5 hours calling people. (I’d say time WELL spent actually, but I bet you’ll beat yourself up for “wasting time” am I right?)

It’s not about planning out whole days and weeks (and a month??? what even is that??? seems like a year). It’s about HOURS right now. I know I am cycling through a multitude of energy highs and lows each day. I am wandering through my dirty dirty house and thinking “someone should vacuum! I should have taught my kids to vacuum when they notice (LOL) the floor is this dirty.” (Oh the Head Trash Monster is having a field day right now with everyone’s pysches…tabling that discussion for another blogpost)

But I don’t want to vaccuum. I really don’t. I will ride the energy of what is working for me. (I did actually get the vacuum out and it’s sitting in the middle of the floor…progress)

True story: I was so rudderless yesterday afternoon that I went upstairs, downstairs, out to the garage, the front yard, the back yard, and THEN, finally, I grabbed my computer, sat in the living room and went to town deleting pointless files off my desktop, and loaded and tidied my Google Drive instead! What an unexpected win. (and when I opened my laptop this morning it was so gloriously tidy)

But that was NOT on my “to do list”. Do you get what I’m saying?

MY goals are governed by my ENERGY right now. And that’s totally okay. It’s like physical therapy after a car accident. You can’t run until you re-train your legs to even walk steadily.

Give yourself grace, which means do what feels right for now. No judgment. No thinking about OPGs. Just yours. Hey, if you take a few quiet moments to be introspective, you will find the things that ARE working well for you right now. And you’d better say “yay me”! Again and again.

I’m sitting down right now to revamp my 90-day goals. Or I might not:)

Thanks for reading this as a gift of your precious time to me. Cheers! Comments welcome!

Cheers,
Ryan 🙂

Hey!

My name is Ryan…

I love teaching people how to let go of the crazy and live a less stressful life. My book The CALM Method: A Guide to Ditch Last-Minute Living is full of guidance and tips for you, but the real magic is in our community. The Find FOCUS Membership is a great place to get more done alongside your peeps!!!

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