November 15, 2011

Hello there and Hello Tuesday! The second day of a lovely week. I have two items that I'm posting today, both of which I found on other blogs that I follow. Since this is LL's Guide to Renewal - I guess I need to get back to the renewal part of the blog. First the ABC's of me - I thought this was a great way to get to know some things about someone. I saw this first on Edi Royer's blog, memoriesforlifescrapbooks.blogspot.com and decided to try it here.

 

The ABC’s of ME

A – aunt to 5 wonderful nephews, B – bargain hunter, C – choreographer,  

D – dancer/dance teacher, E – ex- tax preparer, F – forty something,  

G – God fearing, H – happy (much of the time), I – Internet addict, 

J –jelly beans (2^nd favorite candy), K – kids (four of them), L – Lostlemonade

M – multi-tasker, N – Nerd for life,  

O – Operations Manager (for art shows/festivals),

P – popcorn (favorite snack food), Q – quiet, R – rebellious,  

S – sister (second oldest),

T – tinkerer, U – upbeat, V – violet (favorite color), W – Wii Player,

X – xenodochial (isn’t that a cool word? Means hospitable)

Y – yellow roses (favorite color to receive), Z – zealous

This was so much fun to do. I am a list maker as well, so this was a task right up my alley. Try it and let me know how it goes (you can post your link in the comments).

The second thing I borrowed is from VictorianSwag.blogspot.com. She talks about personal progression and goal keeping. In this particular, she mentions a professor she had that required the students to daily chart their progress in each of five areas:

1. Spiritual - Examples: Reading Scriptures, Prayer, Meditation
2. Mental - Examples: Learning a new word, starting a new book, watching a documentary
3. Physical - Run a mile, Do 30 lunges, run the stadium steps, eat a healthy breakfast
4. Service - Call an old friend, find a way to get involved with community, volunteer
5. Other - Come up with something on your own, something you've been putting off

This was so simple and life changing to me, I have decided to adopt it into my own life (thanks, VS!). So last week, I added this plan to my Renewal process and here's what I've done so far this week.

• 1. Spiritual - Meditated 10 minutes each day, returned to Women's Bible Study classes on Thursday.
• 2. Mental - Read two new books, learned a new word (see X above)
• 3. Physical - Added work out portion to Monday night dance class, walked 7 total miles this week
• 4. Service - Involved in two fundraising activities with sons' schools (two schools)
• 5. Other - Staying away from my bad habit (I'll tell more about that at later date)

I've set up a little bulletin board on the wall (right behind my trusty laptop) and I've added my ABC's and my Personal Progression Goals Overview List to it. It's my Daily Motivation Board and it's simply fabric covered foam core board with some bricbrac edging, double sided foam taped to the wall so that I can "push pin" and "thumb tack" and "post-it" everything I need to follow my path towards renewal.

So far, so good! I ended my week with a positive affirmation of things about me, a refreshed zeal and a positive attitude about the week ahead! 

How do you "re-new"? Any ideas that you use to keep yourself going on those days you don't quite feel like doing anything?