It has been 76 days since my last blog post – time has gotten away from me again. My intent was to post weekly, or biweekly at the least; not every 11 weeks! There is a silver lining to taking time between posts however, I can reflect on the moments that have occurred in which I can learn from.
I have embarked on a second educational endeavor with another school, Vancouver Community College, I am smack dab in the middle of my 2nd course to gain accreditation to become an adult instructor. I am learning about how adults learn, which is interesting, while I would love to imagine myself as a unique learner, I am a pretty much textbook humanistic learner, with a dash of transformative learning thrown in. My master’s program is still out there – 2 more classes and then that pesky thesis (trying not to panic still no topic). My day to day hasn’t really changed all that much in reality.
While the day to day is the same, I have been slowly changing, as I have been busy studying and writing, new seeds have been planted. It wasn’t until I finished Cait Flanders book ‘the year of less‘ that I am able to articulate what I would like this year to feel like, how I would like to remember this year; it is to gain balance.
For me balance is buying only what I and my family need, balance is calm, balance is schoolwork and real life equally prioritized, balance is not letting myself be consumed by ___________ (a different noun seemingly every day).
So that is the guiding theme for 2019 – Balance. Has anyone else chosen a theme for their year?
“The Year of Less” made a huge impact on me as well! Definitely not easy to live the values i aspire to every day, but so helpful to have them as a “north star”. My goals also centre around balance – seeing and being grateful for the things I have is a huge part of that for me.
Courtney Carver (of “Be More with Less”) talks a lot about making a gradual change towards your goal, be it balance or anything else. Being gentle with myself helps with feeling discouraged when i face setbacks (hello, impulse sweater purchase…). Of course, we need to be careful that gentleness doesn’t become an excuse for indulgence on a regular basis 😉
Very true. I find I can easily rationalize a purchase, so I am working on changing the question to “why would I need ____, do I have something that could work instead”? So far so good…but it is a daily task, we really are a consumer society.