Resolutions - Big Changes are Underfoot!

Resolutions are a powerful tool if done properly.  As a woman with an attention deficit issue, I make daily resolutions.  Usually the first is to take less time pondering the meaning of my dreams and to get out of bed, the second is to consider my identity...  but that is not what a New Years Resolution is about. 

As you read this post, try to keep this old saying in mind:  A ship in harbor is safe-but that's not what ships are made for.   -John Shedd

There are a lot of changes in store for our family this year.  Most of these changes are of my doing.  drum roll   I have decided that the next step in my ongoing 'Karma Reduction' program is to return to school.

Why, you ask, would this be listed under 'Karma Reduction'? 

I know that you kind readers out there think of me as this put together person with a productive life, happy marriage, thriving family...but alas...it was not always this way.  Unfortunately, when the scaffolding of my childhood life was removed and I was shoved out the door and into the abyss of my undeveloped frontal lobe, I managed to create a folder of unbelievably outrageous and wonderful (and the occasionally horrific) memories that have forged the Alana that is the woman I am today.

 

Unfortunately, during those boisterous years I did not create the kind of transcript which would allow me to easily transfer from one professional career to another.  Oh sure, it would allow me to move from School Bus Driver to FedEx Courier, or Temporary Transcriptions to Typist.  It would open many doors to jobs that seem to think of 'college degree' as the only requirement, like teaching English in Japan. 

The truth is that for years I have held the belief that I am not that clever or there would not have been quite so many "Acedemic Probation" stamps on my transcripts. 

It did not occur to me until recently that school is much like house keeping and that a new attitude would make it like the meditation that it is.  The successful application of the meditation would provide a steady success and this success will allow me to not sit in the nursing home some day pondering my knuckle head status of those years long gone by.

I am more than a bit concerned about how this excursion is going to go.  I can't help but wonder if I am going to have as much trouble paying attention to my professors as I used to.  I wonder if I am going to hear the breathing of each of my classmates as I take notes.  I can hear the chorus now:  "Alana, you are not that same person!  You are an adult now.  You are motivated and have a purpose for going there."

You are all correct, however, the essence of Alana is still present and I need to be able to embrace that.  This truth is going to set me free.

Therefore, the resolutions I have put forth are all revolving around the use of aids to create an organized mental space. 

My Very Cute Santa Baby bought me this for Christmas.  Not only does it allow me to Skype with video and retire my 'crack-berry', but I am able to use helpful apps like this one- 

This is called the Motivated Mom and it tells me what to clean each day.  So far I've been on it for a week and in under an hour my house is very livable and cleaner than it was the day before.  Some one said to me, "You need an app to tell you that your laundry needs to be washed?  I mean really, you don't notice it?"  Instead of saying, "Unlike you, my life is far to creative to notice things like laundry."  I just said, "No."

This app called 2do is helping me keep my classes, my Brownie troop, and my family and our activities plugging along smoothly.  I can use it to record my audio notes if I don't have time to type them in.

This app from Weight Watchers is invaluable for helping me keep up a healthy eating program.  Because my ITouch has wi-fi and the whole world has wi-fi beaming into it, I can calculate points values while in the grocery store without looking like a big dork.  Very handy.

I think though that this might be the tool that actually allows me to cope with the breathing that I focus on around me in class.  It is the Live Scribe and I think it may be invaluable since I will be fighting the urge to dream of the drama gong on in each of my classmates lives instead of cell structures and psych relationships.

Oh!  Exciting changes are underfoot!  I have been meditating on the idea that I may actually enjoy being a student again and actually succeed at it.  It's a crazy, far fetched idea, but one that I think I am ready to embrace. 

Wish me well as I steer my ship out of the harbor!