Figuring Out How to Stop Going Nowhere Fast

In the last few months, I’ve felt like I was floundering. My productivity, at least from my perspective, has been ominously close to zero. I have too many days when I just fart around, doing little of value.

Fortunately, I’ve joined several groups on Facebook, and connected with a few people who provide, not only inspiration, but motivation. One such group is The Careful Cents Club, a group for freelancers which was created by the lovely and talented Carrie Nicholson. In fact, this is where I met Gina Horkey who created a course I recently took and who has been both coach and cheerleader as I meander into the world of freelance blogging.

Making a Plan to Motivate

It was a discussion in The Careful Cents Club today which made me finally realize what the real problem was. It wasn’t lack of motivation, because when I have things to do, I’m very focused. Instead, it was the lack of a plan. I was letting my days just wind out however they chose, with no direction or purpose to guide me. To say this method was an epic fail is to sugar coat the truth. I’d lost any kind of edge I might have once possessed, and the time had come to get it back.

It was MG’s post today stating that because Gina had held her accountable, she’d landed a job, which finally made me clear the fog which had inhabited my brain. Not only had she landed a job, it had only taken a couple of days for it to happen! I began to wonder. What could I achieve if I found a way to hold myself accountable? My earnings from freelance blogging have been hit or miss at best, and have a long way to go before they reach the $100 mark, much less the aggressive goal I made to earn $4000 a month by September! Since the books and the blog posts aren’t going to write themselves, I needed both a plan and a schedule, as well as set times for going to the gym, completing accounting work for clients and even meditating,

And while I’m on the subject of meditating, that is where I’d really been taking advantage of myself, and losing sight of everything that matters. My meditations lately had become two and three hour indulgences which left my sleepy and lazy for the rest of the day. I’d start out meditating and end up napping for hours with a cat or two snuggled on my lap or beside me.

So, here’s the plan for the next week.
1. I will schedule each day out, loosely but with definite goals. I’ve started slowly with Friday and Saturday.
2. I will limit my meditations to one hour, and set a timer so I don’t go over. I did this today and came out of my meditation refreshed instead of sleepy.
3. I will set myself goals; small at first so I see immediate results, but increasingly difficult as those small wins pile up.
4. I will strive to get up no later than 8:30 every day and go to bed no later than 2:00AM.
5. I will schedule three gym visits per week, and plan them for earlier in the day than has been my wont.

Contrary to my old ways, I’m limiting this list to five items for now as I believe this project requires baby steps to get it moving. In order to hold myself accountable, I will post my progress in this blog on a daily basis.

Let the productivity begin!

My gratitudes tonight are:
1. I am grateful to Carrie and Gina and the rest of the Careful Cents Club for helping me see where my productivity issues lie.
2. I am grateful that my daughter is on the mend, my cats are less stressed and I’m working myself back into a productive routine.
3. I am grateful that my productivity plan is already working, since I limited my meditation/nap time and am posting in my blog tonight.
4. I am grateful that I’m giving myself more opportunities to write and create while still being a responsible adult.
5. I am grateful for abundance: joy, love, productivity, inspiration, motivation, harmony, peace, health, prosperity and philanthropy.

Blessed Be