Account Me In

Yup. It's Monday. 
Which means reluctance to get on the school bus, major negotiations in odd locations (this morning I was up a tree), it means being supportive and yet immovable at the same time.
"I know you don't want to go to school and I really do understand what you're going through but I'm going to make you go anyway." 
It means trundling off to work - a little late due to the afore mentioned school blues but otherwise right on target to get the chainsaw out and do some gardening! (Right now I'm a  gardener and a bit of a chainsaw addict. And loving it.)

It also means the first Monday in a new habit I've started for myself called Accountability. 
Which sounds really boring and even a bit wanky, but really it's pretty darn exciting! 

I've always known that aside from the occasional giant spanner life throws at your head, everyone is pretty much exactly where they choose to be. I've always accepted responsibility for myself, to the point of being a bit pugnacious about it.  I'm damn sure no one else has the right to take my self-responsibility away from me, and no one else has made my choices for me, so the person that has caused me to be right-here-right-now could only be me and that's all there is to it. 

Which is true for us all. 

It also means that if I want something to happen, I have to make it happen. I have to choose it. And then I have to actively chase that sucker down and catch it. I have to make it mine. 
No one else is qualified to chase it down for me. I have to do it. I have to Do. The. Work. 

This is where the accountability comes in.

For the next 6 months I'm trying something new. On Sunday, I gave myself time to sit quietly and write down my weekly goals. It doesn't mean that I've filled up each day until I don't have time to breathe or be flexible or adapt to what the week brings me. It just means that I have a set of specific goals that I'm going to accomplish this week. The only time I've set aside in the calendar is for work commitments, kids sport commitments,  and a small space on Thursday to check in with my goals and see where I'm at. That Thursday time is Non-Negotiable.

Thursday is Goal Revue Day. Because I can't be accountable if there is never an accounting. 

Why this is exciting is because I feel like I've been watching myself just bob along for a little bit too long, a jellyfish in a sea full of jellyfish. We're all just quietly bobbing along, going no where much really, but that's cool. It's all fine. No worries. Chill, baby. Chill.

And suddenly I've discovered that I have the means for self-propulsion!! All I really have to do now is use it, and then make sure I don't stop using it and forget it's even there, and become a jellyfish again. Accountability. 

The rest of the year is going to be goal laden in a way my life has never been before. Not only will there be new weekly goals - every week!! - there will also be monthly goals, which will also be revued about two thirds of the way through each month. The goals will be specific. As pin-pointed as I can make them. Like any fool on the brink of the plunge, I'm feeling infinitely optimistic about it all. 

Every Monday, there'll be the obligatory blog post, to check in with how it's going and how I'm feeling about it. And to see if I'm achieving the same as I was when I was a jelly fish, or if  things are moving along towards the direction I want them to be a bit more. 

Right now, half way through the first day, I'm on track. I've even done the load of laundry for the day that I promised myself I would. That's how serious I am. 

I feel like this could bring big changes, and I'm excited, and hopeful, and really interested to see what comes. And I'm in love with the idea of being accountable to myself. It feels positive, rather than dutiful. It feels good. 

​Wish me luck. :)