In the first post of this series, we covered chaos, and how it is important to consciously assign time for chaos every single day.
Some people call it space. Others call it margin. I use all three here and there.
Since you're now leaving space for chaos like a pro, what happens when super-charged chaos happens? Beyond the time you planned for?
Like when you have a difficult day? Or a difficult month?
Or a year like this year...
...When crazy things began to happen almost on a monthly basis: like people crowding in supermarkets, panic shopping like most of us have never seen before. Job loss and economic crisis and distance learning and cancelled plans and isolation and sickness and quarantining.
Now that's chaos.
How do you remain grounded, focused, and composed in the face of this? When you're exhausted and tired? When you're confused and feeling stuck? When you're alone and unmotivated?
One way I've found works is to circle back to your own unique, authentic values.
I wrote an article before, about values. It showed the following values, and the task was to choose the 3-5 that are most important to you. Here they are (in no particular order):
Adventure
Success
Kindness
Health
Love
Security
Comfort
Fun
Passion
Freedom
Nature
Intimacy
Power
Growth
Truth
Learning
Though this seems like a simple task, when I first published that article, some readers told me it took a few more moments than they expected to complete. When we start identifying our core values, our fundamental beliefs, and when we consciously choose what matters to us - not to anyone else - we can align our goals, projects and intentions with these values. We can dedicate our precious time to them. And then, even if it's a difficult day, and you only do less than 1% or a half-hearted effort of some kind of work on a project you'd love to finish, it feels ok. Because things are in alignment; you can keep circling back, like a homing pigeon, to what matters to you, your legacy and your life. You can be conscious and careful with your time. The point of this article is quite simple: When you clearly know your unique values, or your authentic principles and beliefs, you can set your goals and activities to be aligned with them. This means filling your days and life with things that make you feel light and joyful. When I first started setting goals, this was a major gap missing in my plan. I hadn't identified any of my core values. And the first planning course I ever did, didn't even touch on them. Later, I also didn't know if the values I'd identified were really things I believed or just what I thought everyone else expected of me. But this year, because I had a better grasp on my values, even when things were super difficult, I found it easier to focus on the things I set out to do from the start, (what feels like ten years ago) in December 2019. Like finally publishing my first Chinese reader: Asma, What's the Matter!? Find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08NGN6BJ7
-Sumbella
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