The Better List

Being that today is the first day of a BRIGHT NEW year, i thought it the perfect time to introduce a little project I am excited to begin.

I call it The Better List.

From my little experience, I think pretty much everyone spends a lot of time thinking about who they are and who they are becoming, especially at the beginning of a year when the canvas is clear and the paint in hand.

In my life, there is so much that I am working on in order to become who I want to be. It will take every day of my beautiful life to become that vision of myself and is the one To Do List in life that is never complete. But that's the joy of it!!!

So I've started a little project. Well that's a loose use of the word "start" since this is probably close to version #10. After months of tweeking and experimenting however, I think I've come up with something that will work and last. And the mission of it all: to better myself.

When I first began The Better List I was overwhelmed by the amount of areas I saw that I needed to improve before I would become the best version of myself I could envision. I didn't know where to begin! So I started with one of my FAVORITE things, lists. I sat down one lovely sunday and wrote every single thing I could think of that I wanted to improve. From hobbies like cooking, dancing and running, to virtues like patience, hope and fearlessness, to practical skills like flossing and nutrition. I put it all on one very long list. For some that long list might have just increased the feeling of being overwhelmed, but for me it made me SMILE. I was excited to see everything I would work on and incorporate in my life over time and I was calmer now that everything was there, not to be forgotten, but not to be done right away. So then I went and JUMPED IN. I began putting the list into action, but had trouble being patient and giving myself enough time to actually change myself. I wanted the change to occur over a single day or week and I wanted multiple things to change all all the same time. But that didin't work.

So the new, improved Better List now goes like this: Each month I choose one thing from my list to focus on. Not only do I strive to be what this thing is every day, but I learn as much as I can about it so that my mind, heart and actions are all "becoming" in the process. At the end of the month this thing should be incorporated enough that it is now a part of who I am and I can choose a new thing to work on. This project isn't about feeling my weaknesses or focusing on how far I am from my dream of myself, it's about seeing the beauty of who I am today and letting it continue to grow.

So every month starting with this brand new one before us, look forward to a little focus on some aspect of life. Here perhaps you can learn a little bit as I learn and find a comrade in the search to change oneself into all that our potential gives us the opportunity to be.