#31dayreset: catch-up day 4

thanks @happyblackwoman for my day 3: write a love letter to your future self. now onto the next assignment.
(check out 31 days over here)

day 4: identify your values. for this exercise, it is the precursor to the next several days, when i'll develop a personal mission statement. for day 4, it's about the first step - identifying my values, what matters most to me, things that mean a lot to me in my life, what i care about. to do so -

• list . . . take time (~15-min) for a free-for-all list of all the things that mean a lot to me in my life, all the things i care about
• choose . . . from my list, choose my "top 10"

as a side note: this once again reminded me of a december reverb10 prompt. the first reverb10 prompt was one word - encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. explain why you are choosing that word. now imagine it is one year from today, what would you like the word for 2011 to be?

in my one word response/blog post, i included my 1994 "epiphany" that resulted in mission, vision, values statements. since then, i have revisited them just a few times to tweak my words. for my 31 day reset, i will work fresh and not necessarily just copy from what i've had. who knows what new and different thoughts may emerge?!

reset 10 ... well, my top 10 = reset 10 came from a free-for-all list of 45 words that i wrote in my 31 day reset notebook while listening to my theme song live your life by yuna. these reset 10 will be part of day 5's next step in developing my personal mission statement. in no special order other than alphabetical, the words i have chosen are -

• authenticity
• community (sense of, e.g., family, friends, neighborhood, etc.)
• curiosity
• equity
• foresight
• forthright
• imagination (update) expression (conceiving of and sharing possibility thinking)
• love (update) connecting (establishing loving, deeper connections with family, friends, etc.)
• self-awareness (update) identity (discovering one's self through relfection)
• service

(just chugging along on

blog-journal synching for 31 day reset)

#31dayreset: catch-up day 3

thanks @happyblackwoman for my day 2: take an honest assessment of your life. now onto the next assignment.

(check out 31 days over here)

day 3: write a love letter to your future self. for this assignment, it builds upon day 2's exercise and involves another two-part exercise to put dislikes into perspective by writing a love letter to myself -

1. Write yourself an inspiring letter about how your life will be improved in the next 30 days.
2. Type and paste letter into futureme.org; set your letter to be sent to you exactly 30 days (or more) from now!

(as a side note ... this reminded me of one of my december reverb10 prompts - future self - Imagine yourself five years from now. What advice would you give your current self for the year ahead? (Bonus: Write a note to yourself 10 years ago. What would you tell your younger self?).)

post 31-days reset ... now for my love letter to my future self ...

dear future shirlnutkin, 

congrats on all the progress you've made so far! now you have even more to be grateful for in each area of your life, including :

• Lifestyle: You love . . . enjoying and accessing both the urban and suburb offerings at your leisure; being mindful of how you choose to spend your time to support the areas of my life; meeting and engaging (face-to-face and virtually) with like-minded people who have a natural and inspiring high level of intensity; making space for having a pet; using technology creatively and efficiently; helping people connect with their passion; writing articles related to anthrocubeology; being sought to speak about anthrocubeology; and posting and writing at least 3 days a week to your anthrocubeology website while also commenting on other related sites.
• Work: You love . . . affecting, initiating, and creating a cultural shift in the workplace - one that strives for discovery and authenticity; sharing knowledge in meaningful and transferable ways; taking advantage of telework; serving in a change management / servant leadereship role; repositioning r|cat to support anthrocubeologist development; and creating a expressive and organized workspace. 
• Education: You love . . . creating and engaging in learning opportunities including: listening to the history of philosophy podcast and other podcasts; reading books contributing to becoming/being the anthrocubeologist; attending talks, lectures, and speeches; learning how to cartoon; continuing improv and  learning other performance-related self-expression; engaging others about being an anthrocubeologist;  and exploring on-line classes and training consistent with lifestyle improvements. 
• Finances: You love . . . creating an accessible and organized financial recordkeeping system; optimizing my financial circumstances; saving and budgeting with personal goals and lifestyle in mind; having additional income; and donating to and providing microloans for various causes that resonate with me.
• Health: You love . . . having a health-minded and active lifestyle at a healthy weight; practicing reiki at least once a week (to later increase); continuing to develop through improv;  and restarting iyengar yoga.
• Family: You love . . . reconnecting with your extended family; being mindful of creating space to spend time with immediate family; and compilng a dvd for my mom and brother of our famliy videos and pictures.
• Relationships: You love . . . meeting like-minded, new people; deepening relationships with friends and family; and being open to romance in my life.

your life is so much better now, and it's all because of your hard work. keep it up! 

shirlnutkin

(just chugging along on

blog-journal synching for 31 day reset)

#31dayreset: catch-up day 2

thanks @happyblackwoman for my day 1: start here. now onto the next assignment.

(check out 31 days over here)

day 2: take an honest assessment of your life ... for this assignment, this involved looking at my current reality in a two-part exercise. the purpose of this exercise is -

1. to force you to own up to exactly which areas you’d like to improve upon in your life. 
2. to give you encouragement to build on what’s already great about it.

to start off, rosetta asks that i look at seven areas in my life and identify what I LIKE and what I DISLIKE.

seven areas ... rosetta provided the seven areas to take an honest assessment of my life, so here we go -

• Lifestyle (satisfaction with where you live/living environment, how you spend your leisure time)
  i like ... the come and go freedom to choose (activities, personal time, socializing, exercise, etc.); proximity to family; and options to experience diversity of food, cultures, activities, etc.
  i dislike ... distance and convenience to the types of activities i enjoy (urban setting); not yet established consistent/disciplined management of my time around various pursuits and interests; not having as many like-minded folks to bounce ideas and create things more regularly in the areas of servant leadership, creative expression, and possibility-thinking and doing; the much less prevalent, hyper (or heightened?) intense critical thinking and discourse comparable to what i did more of when i lived in san diego; not having a pet; and being slow about kick-starting anthrocubeology.

• Work (satisfaction with where you work right now, what you do to earn your living)
  i like ... the intended mission and objective of the place i work, where its located (in the city); reading technical/trade journals and magazines (and i get paid to do so - woo-hoo!); problem-solving, working with people, and sharing information to further a better environment for all.
  i dislike ... elements of the organization's culture that can/does result in workplace dissatisfaction; doing less technical work compared my previous work where i did much more technical work; traditional structure; and can't have pets at work.

• Education (satisfaction with your educational attainment to date – college, vocational school and other learning goals)
  i like ... the accomplishment of earning my engineering degree; the skill sets (of problem solving) from my college experience that i've used throughout life; and taking courses for personal and professional development.
  i dislike ... the limited flexibility i had to take courses outside my college major and thus not formally learn (during college) about other areas such as social sciences, arts, and physical sciences; not establishing a consistent time frame for creating my anthrocubeology website.

• Finances (the current state of your budget/money management, salary, net worth, debt-to-income ratio)
  i like ... i can provide for myself and the lifestyle i enjoy; am not in debt; have been saving money/investing.
  i dislike ... i will not retire as early as i would have liked; i am not donating money to causes as much as i had done so in the past; i am reliant on a financial planner rather than doing so directly for myself; and being not as organized in my recordkeeping.

• Health (the current state of your mental, physical and spiritual health – mind, body, soul)
  i like ... my continued exploration of mental/mind and spiritual/soul development, my on-going participation and successes with health month and tiny habits as part of improving my physical/body health.
  i dislike ... being overweight; managing my physical health with meds; not spending more time reconnecting with my reiki abilities; and spending not as much time doing iyengar yoga.

• Family (the quality of your relationships with family members, siblings, children)
  i like ... being physically closer to family (compared to being in SD) and therefore spending time with my immediate family.
  i dislike ... the frequency of (not as much) interactions with my extended family/relatives and getting to know them better; and not establishing a more consistent amount of time that i spend with my immediate family.

• Relationships (the quality of your relationships with friends and romantic partners)
  i like ... the loving friends that i have.
  i dislike ... not taking time to be as open and available to a romantic relationship; and not being around as many like-minded, possibility-thinking and doing friends and colleagues.

(just chugging along on

blog-journal synching for 31 day reset)

#31dayreset: catch-up day 1

thanks  @happyblackwoman 

(on web, facebook, youtube, also @rosettathurman) 

for the opportunity to participate in 

the april 2012 31 days to reset your life challenge.

from rosetta thurman's happy black woman

blog catch-up ... indeed, it is april 5, and although i am caught up in my journal notebook, i've got a bit of catching-up on my blog, which i will be doing today and tomorrow - posting assignments on my blog to sync up with my notebook entries.

tidbits on why i joined ... it just felt like THIS is the month to reset ... i enjoy the self-reflection as i had done so in reverb10 in december 2010, i have been in the process of refreshing my 2012 mash-up goals, and i wanted to "double up" with experiential activity i am doing with nicole maxali's soulwork: creating, acting, living. (also, there is something yet to emerge through my writing that i have yet to discover.)

day 1 assignment ... beginning with 3 choices to make, the day 1 assignment as shared by rosetta includes -

• choose a reset notebook to use everyday to "... record your responses, insights and "aha moments" throughout the challenge" 
• choose a personal mantra "... a positive phrase or affirmative statement that you say to yourself for the purpose of motivation or encouragement ... write it on the first page of your reset notebook as a blessing on everything that will be written and accomplished this month."
  
• choose a theme song "want following you around during your daily journey to reset your life ... brings about some kind of motivation or inspiration ... play song as you begin your day or in the background as you reflect on and complete each assignment"

day 1 responses ... my choices -

• my notebook ... i choose a brown and beige “RevolveR” notebook (i also have a red moleskine, which i carry around regularly.) i want to have my 31 days reset in a dedicated journal. and the revolver notebook is something new to me. giving it a try.
• my mantra ... it really wanted my mantra not only to serve as inspiration but to be part of my journey -
  "in querencia, be the catalyst who serves."
  - where i share on my blog post what querencia means. 
• my theme song ... although i had batted around a different song, on day 2 i heard a song, which cemented my theme song for this 31 day reset -  “Live Your Life” by Yuna, with the lyrics and a video on my blog 

(just chugging along on 

blog-journal synching for 31 day reset)