A Month Without ______ [Worry]?
They started a few years ago when I was contracting at a job where I was underutilized and bored out of my skull. So I had to do something to fluff my mood up on a daily basis. Hence: the monthly “things.” For a month I did daily things like:
- Wear mascara (hardish)
- Talk to someone new at work (harder)
- Tell someone you love them (hardest; freaked a few people out that month)
Lately, as I establish and build my own biz, the monthly themes have come back in a different form: letting go of. A couple of themes in the last several months:
- Don’t think or talk about biz-building (November ’09)
- Don’t worry (April ’10)
In both cases I gifted myself a time frame to let go of overthinking and do the work that was in front of me and see what might come in. Actually, I didn’t know if anything would come in, I just needed to give my brain and psyche a break, already!
I can be a real fretter and worrier in times of uncertainty (like starting a new biz and not having a regular HR-generated paycheck). Which is also a bit paradoxical since I ultimately thrive in the creative adventure of work, which comes with a lot of uncertainty. But really, any “certainty” in life is a bit of a mirage, no?
Anyway the point here is to get you thinking about something you can do — or give up — every day for a month. And good news! There’s a new month incoming in just a few days here.
A note about the Month Theme
There’s something wonderfully liberating about giving yourself a designated time frame — a beginning and end-time — in which to try something new and possibly uncomfortable. Whenever I want to sit up and calculate my bank account or imagine myself destitute under a bridge, I remind myself that April is worry-free month and that on May 1 I can resume worrying myself into the coma, if need be.
And since I’ve been worrying way, way less …
- I’ve been more creative, more productive
- I’ve been happier
- I’ve been getting out into the world and meeting new people more
- I’ve had some cool new biz opportunities come up
- I’m sleeping better
- More smiles, more optimism, more calm
- I’m thinking of signing up for one more month. Curious to see what less worry gives me.
What can you give up or do more of — one habit or way of being that doesn’t serve you well – for just one month and see how life shifts a bit for you?
The space you create for yourself by giving up a dear old-friend of a habit (focusing on regrets; filling your head with “yeah-buts”) may bring answers, resolution, the birth of new cool projects and creative progeny. Maybe even a refreshing sense of peace and a true belief in life’s possibilities. Trying something new for a month may kick your sweet ass and out of a rut and show you what you’re made of.
Ready, set …. let the month begin!
And have fun with it,
xo
I get ya girl…Have been on that all month as well. I say I am a man of faith so I have decided to live that way….I will do what I can do and the outcome is up to God. The energy I have saved in less worry about the “outcome” has increased my ability and freedom to “do” more. Will it produce more and better outcomes….I don’t know…not my job to worry about that!