Hey you, yes you who’s all yellow these days.
Yellow, lazy, dull, sad, not motivated… Yellow in your face, yellow in your head and in your heart.
I’m sure you heard yourself say “what happened? I’m usually so full of life, productive, and efficient.”
Don’t worry and don’t be so hard on yourself (you’re making yourself anxious), let the yellow come because it is an essential part of the process.
Two posts ago, I mentioned 4 things to reduce anxiety and one of them was setting the record straight with yourself. One of the reasons you’re feeling yellow is because your vision is a little blurred. You’re not sure what you want, or why you want what you want. You need to set the record straight.
You’re in a learning curve, just under the wave right now but hang on and try this.
Photo by Nigel Tadyanehondo on Unsplash
STEP 1: Brainstorm
Get yourself a blank sheet of paper and a marker.
Make yourself some tea, and sit somewhere calm.
Answer this: what are the attributes, values and qualities that I love and admire in others? That I would like to be remembered for? That I couldn’t live without? That I think the world should have more of?
Write down the words. There can be as many as you’d like, but limit yourself in time (3 minutes) to avoid getting lost in detail.
Example: honesty, loyalty, integrity, learning, tolerance.
STEP 2: Clarify
Try to link and group some words together under one major trait.
Identify these traits that are now pillars.
Draw a circle or a square around the pillars. Try to limit yourself to 6 pillars. The ones you’ve come up with first as probably the more important ones anyways.
Example: honesty and loyalty can link to integrity. Integrity is a pillar.
STEP 3: Self-check
Take another blank sheet of paper.
Divide the sheet with a pen into the number of pillars (ex: you’d have 6 boxes max.).
In each box, write in a bullet point format all the things that you do to honor this pillar.
Make sure they are verbs ending in “ing”, so you do a truthful check. Sometimes, there’s nothing — that’s okay.
Example: under the pillar “learning”, you might say “I’m taking an online course in interior design” or “I’m reading a book on cooking skills”.
STEP 4: Project
Take another color marker.
For each of the pillars, write at least 1 thing that you’d like to do in the future.
Make sure you start with “I want to…”, so they are not what is expected of you, but what you truly want.
Example: under “learning”, you might say “l want to learn German”.
STEP 5: Set objectives
Take another blank sheet of paper.
Make sure you have your projection sheet to the side.
Hold the sheet in landscape mode and draw a straight arrow across from left to right, in the middle. This is an unlabeled timeline.
For each projection, realistically set an objective (some projections may not feel adequate for this (ex: I want to write in my journal at least once a week)), and set a realistic timeframe by placing it on your timeline. The closer to the arrow head, the further away in time.
Example: for “I want to learn German”, it may be “get a B1 Telc certificate by December 2020”. You place the objective in the middle of your timeline. “Complete two volunteering jobs by the end of 2019” will be placed before.
STEP 6: 5,4,3,2,1… GO!
Get your agenda out.
For each objective, plan time in your week to move forward.
Make sure you are as realistic as possible, it’s okay to spread these out. Don’t try to do too much all at once.
Remember to book in/leave in some “me time” for you to indulge in watching a silly movie or drinking some wine in your bath, and for you to be bored and get creative.
Example: book in a half-hour on Thursday morning to call the language center in your town, to ask for signup fees and course schedules. After that is done, book in a lunch in town on Monday so you can pass by the language center and drop your file, maybe even pay for your course. After that is done, book in your weekly course sessions in your agenda and there you are, you’re doing it!
Remember feeling yellow is part of a process of re-invention, of learning and growing. It’ll happen more than once. With this quick step-by-step, you can set the record straight again and again and get back on your feet.
Life is a game! Take it easy, and enjoyyyyy!
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