(in)courage: I Have a List

Hey, all. :)

I'm writing over at (in)courage today about one of the ways that helps me keep my focus. You all know I love my wall of doodles and I talked today about how I made goals for my life and put them up there to remind myself of what I'm here for.

So hop on over there today and leave me a little comment love.

You can find the post here: I Have a List

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EDITED to add complete post:

When I moved into my condo back in 2003, I had a hard time figuring out where I wanted my “office space” to go. I had a spare bedroom, but I didn’t want the entire space compromised by work things. And since I was transitioning into not being able to work anymore… the space was something I wasn’t willing to let go of, but it was something I also didn’t have much use for.

I was doing less and less freelance writing as my health deteriorated, I hadn’t yet discovered the world of blogging, but I knew I still needed that space. A space for the creative side of me I was trying to figure out how to maintain.

So I took the doors off the closet in my spare bedroom, stuck a desk in there and renamed it an “alcove.” Because, you know, alcove sounds much fancier than a desk in a closet. But putting my desk there meant I’d be staring at a white wall while being creative, and that just wouldn’t do.

So I started doing the one thing that would have gotten me in a heap of trouble when I was little. I started writing on the walls. It’s one of my favorite spaces in my home… while everything else in my world is organized and in its place, this little alcove is whimsical. It’s the place where I wrote all the sayings I loved, inspirational quotes I wanted to surround myself with – reminders of who I wanted to be and how I wanted to live my life.

And that really was the key. I no longer had a career, I was stepping closer and closer to being homebound, I had no husband or children or potential for my life to change. I had to figure out who I wanted to be, outside of the ways most of us define our lives.

It was during that transition that I wrote a list on my wall. I decided on a list of Life Goals for myself. Goals that had nothing to do with what I could “do” or “accomplish.” They were goals of how I wanted to live in my spirit.

It was the list of goals I wish I had made when I was well and able-bodied.

It’s the list we all should sit down and make… the list that comes to fruition when you strip away all the world has to offer and uses to define us.

Here’s what I came up with.

Life Goals:

1. To not be ashamed to stand before God.
2. To fulfill God’s plan by living the best life I can with what I am given.
3. To be aware and present in every moment.
4. To love what I have and not yearn for what I lack.
5. To spread the Joy, not the fear.
6. To be intentional in all things.

I’m pretty much confined to my bed these days, so there is no sitting at my desk and soaking in the words on my wall of doodles. And I realized the other day, as I was struggling health-wise and feeling a little unsteady in my heart, that I needed to frame those Life Goals and put them in here by my bed. I need to have them near me to remind me that I have everything I need right in front of me.Within me.

I need them to keep my focus.

Now that you’ve gotten a month of 2011 under your belt, are you ready to look past all the resolutions you may have made, and dig deeper?

What would your Life Goals – those never-changing staples in the core of your spirit – look like?