Life isn’t about accomplishing things… for those who aren’t getting as much done as they would like.

If I were to keep a list right now it would be miles long of all of the things that need to be done. Everything from weeding and planting in the garden, to putting laundry away, to changing sheets, and making food, to blog writing and office work. I have a two-month old baby. And of the short list of 3-4 things I would like to get done each day, I’m lucky if one gets checked off.

As I was standing in the garden the other day experiencing frustration at the realization that yet again I wasn’t going to get anything done, I thought to myself “you know what, the truth is I just can’t get that much done right now and I can either get mad about it or accept it.” As I stood there looking at the roses that needed clipping and the bolting lettuce plants growing in my yard I thought, “Life must not be about accomplishing things. I know this because I can’t get anything done —AND I’m growing new life.”

But this experience isn’t just for nursing mothers. How many times have each of us encountered a day in which you got done a fraction of what you wanted to accomplish or thought you could do? I would say that is quite common. It always takes longer to do things than we think.

And suddenly it occurred to me in a whole new way, “It’s really not about what we get done. The list of things to do in life is endless. Once one thing is done, another appears. It’s really about enjoying it as we go along.” As little or as much as you can get done in a day, if you do it with a conscious feeling of enjoying what you are doing— you experience happiness. Your days, minutes, moments are worthwhile, this living feeds you.

As I walked into the house to fetch my son who was just waking up from a nap, I felt happy. Once I let go of the notion of what I needed to accomplish in a day, I realized I felt quite fine about what I was doing. Actually, I loved it.

So, if you’re having or have ever had the experience of not accomplishing as much as you’d like, remember the goal in life is not how much you get done, it’s how much you enjoy it along the way. What you are able to do varies, and is often not as much as you think. But how you go about doing it, is completely in your control, and in fact choosing to enjoy it, will make your life worthwhile, whatever big or little amount you are able to do.

Aimée Cartier is an author and intuitive. More about her and her work can be found at www.spreadingblessings.com. You can find her book Getting Answers: Using Your Intuition to Discover Your Best Life at Amazon.

Nurturing the big picture!

I spent the whole day yesterday in blissful solitude.  Excepting my cats, I didn’t talk to a soul.  And boy let me tell you, was it great. 

I’ve been running, running, running lately.  The current demands for my time are high.  Six days a week I have places to go and people to see, and I’m not talking about social life here– I’m talking about work.

So yesterday when I had that one blissful day to myself I took it with gusto.  Actually, with slowness would be more like it.  In contrast to every other day of the week, yesterday I was more like a meandering stream than a gushing river.  I woke up  at 11am.  Wrote some content (okay that was work) for one of my writing clients, and then sat down on my living room floor (in my pajamas) to do some visioning. 

Because I’ve been so busy lately I’ve been finding my mind confined to my most immediate and basic needs.  Must pay rent, must get a file cabinent, must replace cat door– blah blah blah blah.  Those things are lovely, don’t get me wrong.  I do actually get a satisfaction from tending to my needs but when I don’t feel as though I am progressing on something bigger, I find them less satisfying. 

Days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months and before I know it it’s the end of another year and all I have to show for it are 12 months of paid rent.  To rectify this I had a little visioning session yesterday, a reality check on a bigger scale. 

“What are my goals?”  “Where am I going?”  “What does that look like?” I asked myself.  And to satisfy my little mind, the one tallying up the immediate needs, I broke the big sheet of paper down into two columns: immediate needs, and long-term goals.  After I had recorded my long term goals I made a short list of adjustments that I could make in my day to day life that would fit in more time for my long term goals. 

Putting some structures in place that ensure that I am moving forward on my bigger plans is vital for me.  Because the truth is, sometimes I just can’t see past the end of the week.  So sitting on my floor in my pajamas, reminding myself of what is important to me was just what I needed to do.   And let me tell you the pajama part was integral!  I was still in them last night when I got back into bed– nothing but the big picture had changed!