I have been working my way through the Goddess Guide Book by Leonie Dawson, which has given me a fabulous focus for my planning and considering life and business in 2013. I am loving it! One of the sections is about setting Life Rules. Not, as I said last week, to make your life regimented and painful and joyless, but to make your life better. So I thought I would share my 2013 life rules with you – I’ve done a little poster (as you can see) which will go on my digital photo frame and flash up every now and again to remind me to live by these rules.
Rule number one: Lighten Up
As a general rule, I don’t take life very seriously at all. I laugh easily, I’m fairly cheerful. But I noticed last year that when it came to my business and work, I was forgetting that getting stressed, being critical and worrying are NO HELP AT ALL! Since I’ve implemented life rule #1, I’ve just chilled out a bit about (self-imposed) deadlines and ‘getting shit done’. The result? I’m getting more done! Which I find utterly hilarious. But when you are light, relaxed, chilled out, life is easy, and solutions to seeming problems come more easily. And most things that get us stressed and cross are not worth losing your sense of humour for!
Rule number two: Go to sleep earlier
The biggest symptom that I suffer with from MS is exhaustion – I always seem to be tired. I realised a few weeks ago that I’d been ‘blaming’ MS and using the disease as an excuse not to do anything about it. After all, if it’s MS’s fault, I don’t have to do a thing. Hmm. I also realised that I’ve been going to bed later and later and getting up later and later, which is not good in winter, because you miss some of the very few hours of daylight. So, I am going to bed earlier. I have to say, rather than feeling restricting, I feel like I’m really spoiling myself, snuggling down in bed early!
Rule number three: Be Gentle with Myself
As you may know if you’ve been reading my stuff for a while, I am a big fan of taking great care of yourself. It’s a foundational piece of life, and makes life easier. And I’ve been getting better and better at taking good care of me for the past few years. However, I am still sometimes quite hard on myself – having expectations of myself that are unrealistic, working on even when my energy is gone, and generally not treating myself with tenderness. Being gentle with myself does not mean I’ll go off the rails like a child with no discipline, it means my self-care will go up a notch…and ironically, again, I’ll be able to get more done more easily!
Rule number four: SINGLE TASK!
The only rule that made it to capital letters, because this is one I am absolutely determined to master! For years, I have worked with 6, 7, 8 or more windows open, flitting from task to task. Instead of waiting for a program to open, I’d go and do something else in those few seconds, meaning my attention was always scattered, and at the end of the day, it would take hours to finish work because I’d find half a dozen unfinished tasks still open. My experiment with Wild Donkey Riding reminded me that focused attention gets way more done. This year, I am planning to work less hours, and get more done in the time I’m at my desk. So, single tasking is the way forward.
Rule number five: Spend more time with my friends
I am tired of saying to friends “We really should get together more often”. We’ve all been saying it for YEARS. So this year, I am making it my mission to get together with friends more often. Even just planning in dates to spend time with friends I haven’t seen for a while has been fun!
Rule number six: Trust MY wisdom over others
This has been a ‘Life Rule’ of mine for quite some time, but occasionally I forget and let someone pull me away from my truth. It never ends well! The good thing is it always feels ‘off’ somehow so my inner wisdom is still guiding me, even when I’m going against it! For the 9 years I have been in business, this has been a journey of enlightenment for me. First from learning I was not ‘wrong’ and that I could run my business in a way that didn’t make me feel like a tight- sphinctered suit, through to understanding the profound depth of my inner wisdom. I thought I’d ‘got it’, but it appears there are yet more layers of confidence and belief in my wisdom to uncover. Thinking about how far I’ve come already, I’m quite excited to see what the next level of trusting my inner wisdom looks like!
Rule number seven: Work with my energy
I have been known to sit at my desk when I am struggling to hold my head up and stay awake. This is stupid. It’s counterproductive – no work gets done, it just takes me longer to recover! I don’t know why I do it. But more than that, I want to be more aware of when my energy starts to dip so I can get up, move around, dance, get some fresh air, move away from my desk/sofa and re-energise before I get to the point that I feel I’ve been unplugged!
Rule number eight: Eat more natural foods
Whenever I am on a diet, I notice a rise in my energy levels. Basically because I eat less sugar and processed foods. I don’t wish to be ‘on a diet’ forever, but when I’m busy snarfing pizza and Paprika Pringles, I want to remember to also have food that didn’t come from a machine!
So there it is, my Life Rules for 2013. These are the things I know will make my life easier, better, more fun. Many of them have been ‘unofficial’ rules for years, but there is something very powerful about writing them down, making a poster of them, putting them where I will see them all the time and not forget them for 8 months of the year, and ‘officially and publicly’ committing to them. I’m curious, what rules are you going to live by this year? Comment below to let me know what rules you’ll be living by…and how you will remember to do them!
Love
Donna.x
Comments
26 responses to “What Rules Do You Live By?”
You are very welcome Cassandra! I’m glad you enjoyed them! Yep, society’s demands are creating a nation (a world, even) of stressed out, unhappy people who are forgetting the point of life (fun!). Tis no good, and single tasking is such a vital part of it – the more I do it, the more I realise how utterly inefficient and stressful multi-tasking is! xx
Glorious list! I especially love #1 and #4. I definitely need to lighten up and go with the flow of things, not be so afraid of life. And #4 is a brilliant rule to live by in a society that demands we do a million different things all at once. It’s frustrating and not worth it. Thank you for sharing these!
Glad I’m not the only one who loses hours in facebook! Love that you’re making opening up your dreams more important! xxx
Fantastic rules Donna!!
I’ve made myself a few rules too- I have a habit of opening up Facebook with my website pages and get distracted and nothing gets done.
So….I am going to open up my dreams…BEFORE I open up facebook. RULE!
Thanks again for such a fantastic post and a lil reminder!!
*pops sticky note on pc screen- dreams before facey*
Luv and hugs
Toni
Thanks Halina! Feel free to print the image out! 😀 Let me know how you get on with more sleep, single tasking and trusting you. x
Great Post Donna!! I love all your rules and could just copy your poster. 😉 I’d especially concentrate on getting more sleep, single task (I LOVE single tasking!) and trust my wisdom over others. But all the other points are great too! Thank you Donna!
Oh thank you sweetheart! That’s lovely – my heart is smiling! Ooh, that fresh start sounds interesting…tell me more! xxx
Lol – thanks Arwen. Yes, I’m diving in again this weekend (once I get off the ‘pooter!)
Thanks Ziggy! I agree – many of these ‘rules’ have been loosely my thoughts on how to live a great life, but now I’ve made them ‘rules’ and I’m keeping the rules (sometimes at least!!!), they are making life so much better! xx
Loving these rules fr the year ahead. I realy think that we sometimes live by a loose set of principles but because we don’t necessarily see them as “rules”, we can occasionally wander off on tangents. This is a great way to focus and get us back on track again. Thanks heaps!
Smiles and abundant health,
Ziggy
Eggggggscellent! I need to dive back into my planner. This is great. 😀
magic sweetie, i really resonate with them! you are becoming an urban mystical goddess with each day! For me,am reducing my texting, and being online so much socially, am on the verge of deleting a lot of it and starting afresh!
am keen to spend more with friends, and being in the moment much much more!
looking forward to catching up with you very soon,
Love Carriex
Steal away Dominee! Let me know how you get on with them! xx
thank you sweetheart, what a lovely compliment! Oh, it makes SUCH a difference – in the last 2 weeks, I have got SO MUCH MORE done…and I’ve only been single tasking for up to 4 hours a day! Imagine if I did it all day long??! Hmm…a couple of thoughts: Noise cancelling headphones. Headphones for the tv? Do they do wireless headphones you (he!) can use with the tv? An MP3 player with headphones with some kind of ‘white noise’ for you to listen to, which drowns out the tv but doesn’t distract you. Office in the bathroom?! 😀 I see you finding a PERFECT solution. xxx
Lol send me your address and I’ll send you some! Ah, that’s interesting…I may have to try that! Lol – well rules are made to be broken, right?! So there’s the loophole! You’ll have to let me know when you’ve got your rules – I’ll be really interested to hear what they are! xxx
Ooh, I love that rule Debra!!! Reveling in the moment – how utterly delicious! xx
Lol Kisha – I love that! What a great rule! xxx
Thanks Allison. It’s funny, since I made that a ‘rule’, friends seem to be connecting with me more too! Funny how that happens, eh?! Hugs, Donna.xx
Exactly Sibylle! Less effort, more flow, life can be so much easier than we make it at times!!! xxx
I love your life rules (I might steal a few! Especially the going to sleep early!)
Love this, Donna. I really like the way you write, it’s so down to earth and ‘normal’ and you never come across as holier than thou. I totally agree with the doing one thing at once. I’m a bugger for emailing, being in the middle of writing something AND tallking to someone on MSN. No wonder I can’t conventrate. I also find it hard as my beloved cannot do anything without the TV on. The first thing he does when he gets in is put it on, when I’ll quite happily sit in the quiet all day long. I can’t read or concentrate if he’s got the TV on so I end up wasting hours just playing Words With Friends on my phone. Don’t know how to get past that in a one-bed flat but hey-ho!
Your rules are awesome… never seem Paprika Pringles but they sound awesome! I have transferred 1 to 2 of my meals over to Green Shakes and they do make a huge difference in my concentration and energy levels. Big hugs to such a fab list. Now the only thing is I naturally like to find the loopholes in rules – I wonder what will happen when I craft mine?
My rules for this year are to: Release what isn’t serving me, Allow myself to RECEIVE all the goodness in my world, and to spend more time REVELING in the moment!
Here’s a personal life rule that I developed 5 yrs ago: “If you don’t create a problem, you never have to solve it!” In other words, don’t start none, won’t be none! 🙂
Love this list! I especially resonate with # 6 and #5. I’m working on disconnecting from technology more and spending time with loved one and friends.
Smooches, and iCoachNetwork love,
Allison
Amen to all of those! I especially had the experience of getting more done when I’m relaxed. We often forget that all it takes is to allow the “flow” to happen, and things will just effortlessly fall into place!
Much love xx