The Best of Intentions

How to do what you know you want to do- if only you had the time!

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We all think we need more time, as our days rush by in a round of busy-ness often at the back of our minds is the dream,the ONE DAY project.

Maybe its something as simple as taking a class, or something more complicated like building a boat,or writing a book.

It’s there in our minds, yet we never find that chunk of time to actually start.

As part of my daily routine I’ve been writing in a journal for a couple of years, two or three pages written while I sip my morning cuppa.Initially I just wrote what was on my mind until one day I wrote INTENTIONS at the foot of the page.

There I listed what I wanted to do that day, often things to do with writing or creativity.If they were there the next day I transferred them to the next day’s page. It showed me how little time I spent on what was to me so important I paid more attention and used my time better,so if I only had ten minutes, I’d begin to write something in ten minutes.

At New Year I took it one step further, I thought about what I wanted to achieve with my writing and set out a list of realistic but slightly challenging goals. I wrote them out and stuck the list by my desk, where I would see it daily. I called it

MY YEARLY INTENTIONS

I ended up with a list of nine items some were simple,  like joining Romance Writers of Australia. While other required more effort from me ,such as completing a novella of around33,500 words.

Perhaps you’ve guessed that one of those intentions was to start a blog?

It’s almost mid-point of the year and so far I have completed five of the nine items on my list.

The things that made it work for me were.

Having a mix of easy and more difficult things

All were slightly challenging but achievable I hadn’t for example put write a best seller on the list

They were things I actually wanted to do but hadn’t got round to doing.

Seeing them daily as I sat at my desk encouraged me towork to achieve them.

Maybe its time for you to write your own list of intentions?

Make it specific and give yourself a mix of tasks that you think might work for you.

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Author: soniabellhouse

Sonia Bellhouse loves writing and reading stories with a ‘happily ever after ’ending. She believes we all need love in our lives.Contributor to The Regent's Menagerie, The Regency Abduction Club, Sexy Scandals at Swain Cove and Writing the Dream.Author of the contemporary and Viking romance Fire& Ice. Speaker, reader, dreamer. Visit Sonia Bellhouse's Chatting with Authors. https://www.facebook.com/soniabellhouse.author/ Or her Chatting with Authors page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1031642857187598

2 thoughts on “The Best of Intentions”

  1. Sonia, I enjoyed this, before I turned my computer on, I was updating my
    to do list. I didn’t buy a diary this year and a have tear off daily system which
    works quite well. I’ve become more disciplined and get real satisfaction from
    ticking things off. I used to think that kind of thing was for goody goodies,
    more fool me. To your achievements…

    Like

    1. Thanks Leslie- somehow the idea of a list seemed anti-creative, Instead the opposite has proved true- getting those ideas out of my head and on paper staring at me each time I sat down to write seemed to do the trick. Obviously its working for you too!

      Like

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