Working to Do It All….and a New Way to Go About It
As a working mom, it’s easy to let life sweep me away, and I work to be as intentional as possible to create the life of my dreams. Each year, I meditate on my best life ever happening five years from now. I write down what I see and take actionable steps to get there. I check in every month to see how things are going.
Frankly, I love auditing my life to see how I’m stacking up.
I put energy into my career, relationships, health goals, creative hobbies, financial freedom, and acts of service. Trouble is, I tend to work on action items for each domain at the same time….and let’s remember I’m working full-time, teaching yoga on the side, single parenting, going to the gym…It’s exhausting.
It shouldn’t have to be this way, and, quite frankly, it doesn’t.
I realized that I could focus on one domain before moving on to another. When I feel it is 80% complete, I trust that the other 20% will gain strength as I work on another domain.
My hope is that building strength in one would positively impact the others, fostering synergy.
In January, I started with financial freedom. I wanted to optimize my investments for my retirement, establish a solid emergency fund, and set up a small investment fund for my daughter. I also envisioned financial freedom as having the means to take a trip with my daughter once a year.
I reconnected with my WHY for these financial goals. For me, I want to be self-sufficient in my retirement and create lifelong memories with my daughter.
I started by shopping around for credit cards that offer travel points. I would dedicate most of my spending to this card to reach the required dollar amount for the bonus points. When I consolidated my subscriptions (I don’t subscribe to much at all, so that didn’t take long) and moved my auto-payments for some utility bills on this one card, I was able to get there within the dedicated time frame.
Next, I looked at my various investment accounts and worked with a Vanguard agent to help with transfers to one fund. I don’t have time to go from one website to another, and it’s much easier to see it all in one place.
Then I did the math to figure out how much I needed to keep in my savings account to transfer to my checking account as needed. Once I had that number, I transferred the remaining funds to my brokerage account at Vanguard, where the interest earned is reinvested.
Over this time, my mind was a little preoccupied with the questions—what about the other domains? What are you doing for social relationships? To grow your career? Like a gnat in my ear, I had to swat away, and I stayed the course on financial freedom. I knew the other domains were not going to fall out of my life. This is not to say I was negating the other domains while focusing on one during a deep dive. I was still exercising and checking in with friends. As I hoped, seeing the results on this domain gave my brain a great dopamine bath and motivated me to keep going.
Next, I dove into my career—re-organizing my blog, auditing my YouTube channel, and re-designing my website.
Here’s where a cool realization came in:
The focus and mental resilience I had developed in my work with financial freedom made me sharper in how I looked at my career domain.
The strength and capacity for focus and integrity with myself will continue to fortify and carry me through this year-long project.
When I share this practice with people in my daily life, they marvel at the discipline. The only reason I have done this is that I know the life I want to live. Meditation practice over the last 20 years has opened many doors for me, both literally and imaginatively.
Life does not happen to me; I create it.
Things happen for me, and I take it as a new condition for me to say, “Yes, and…”, just as I did when I did improvisational theatre.
If you want to start a life audit, I have two tips for you:
First, start a meditation practice. It can be for five minutes! Over time, you will get comfortable with the discomfort of sitting still with your mind, and, eventually, it won’t feel uncomfortable. The ability to sit with yourself and focus will build resilience.
Second, start observing the world around you with genuine curiosity. This will teach your mind to stay open. How can you do an audit on your life if you think you know what to see? Observation will ensure a judgment-free environment within, and you will need this to stay the course on your audit. It will also keep you patient as you work with others to get these things done.
Leave a comment below on the first domain you will invest in.
If you want a deeper dive into the magic of observation, you will get that, plus other tools for growing your imagination, in my self-paced online course “Acting: Discovering Yourself.”