Giving Up

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Happy Monday!

We have gone past the first 100 days since the Quarantine (of varying degrees) started.  How are you? 



First off, if you are reading this and your family is still healthy, together and surviving, congratulations! I hope you are grateful.  However, although gratefulness IS a way to have high spirits, not everyone is able to keep the spirit alive when times are difficult.  

Although we may have been in this situation long enough to have had the time to reflect, there are still developments and dragging deadlines that seems to stretch us out in many ways.  Financially, professionally, timelines, relationships, even in the little adjustments we make in our lives that seemed temporary but is shaping up to be indefinitely required.  

Just last week, I sat down with my own goal lists, accounting and daily plan to TALK to them.  I have in the past week and a half been forced to face them again because I suddenly had the time.  It turned out to be a blessing.  I did not know I was carelessly handing over my time to the grind.  

These past days, I am regaining my footing and these are the things I found helpful: 

1.  30 minutes of each:  walking, doing nothing (no phones, no books, no munchies, nothing), writing.  

Making time for one self is one healthy habit I always believed in.  However, once in a while, in the whirlwind of events, I forget how little it takes to pinch half an hour from other activities so that I could just be with myself.  I tend to want to feel productive and so I give my time away to other activities.  Needless to say, when the neglect for time for self compounds, I end up feeling lost and overwhelmed.  These 30 minute chunks of time, have in the past 1.5 weeks, been my go to place for empowering myself to gain control of my schedule once again.  

2.  Make ONE ultra basic goal a day.  Today, for example, I have highlighted my goal to publish this while the sun is still up! For the past two weeks, I have been publishing this later in the day and I know it is not because I did  not have the time.  It is because I felt like I have none to say and I keep procrastinating to do it.  The past week however has been quite a journey and I know I would want to share something here.  I just have to go ahead and write it before the day drags me to needless activities again.  

3.  Make ONE biggie goal a week.   After one basic win, I am more confident  to tackle on a bigger goal that may require more days to finish.  For this week, my one biggie is a course that I am working on for July 1.  Very very apt because I will talk about productivity.  I believe what I am going through is sure to enhance that course.  

4.  Make ONE habit goal for the month.  Habits are friends.  I could not be more thankful for some "auto pilot" good habits I have that has paved me through many challenges.  This month, my habit goal is going back to walking daily.  It helps that it has become some sort of refuge for me nowadays so I do look forward to it instead of dragging myself to do it.  

5.  List down things that worries me and tuck them away with a weekly review.  Tucking them away does not mean I am going to run away from them.  What I find helpful here though is the realization that whatever feeling overwhelms me now, almost always does not feel the same way a week after.  I list them down because writing makes me talk to myself.  These things on paper, moving further, makes me remember.  It is liberating when I meet them again and suddenly they do not make as much sense anymore.  

I know that these may sound simplistic. However, as soon as our simplistic steps are moving towards goals, these small movements inches us nearer solutions , sometime exponentially, without us knowing it.  

When we are stretched out, it is always easier to give up.  Giving up may not necessarily be in big ways - like throwing your life away- because this may seem too dramatic.  In truth, we give up in small ways first and find out later on we have given up on big things unknowingly.  These simplistic steps are just the reverse of that.  

Remember:  Giving up is easy... but they are never worth it.  

Cheers to carrying on! Have a great week ahead!

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