The Lazy Perfectionist gets imperfectly active

While googling "lazy perfectionist" (because I just read the Elizabeth Gilbert book Big Magic, and that idea really cracked me up/resembled me), I came across the website of a Christine Carter. I started poking at her 90 day Habit Program, and realized, I have found my newest project!

I'm on day 5 at this point, and I always feel reassured when the program I'm currently doing is reinforced by programs I've already done. (I believe that's called confirmation bias?) So yeah, I think it's going to be good. Plus, I get to be in another Facebook group, and there's text reminders (which is a new one, but less annoying than getting texts about coupons from retailers, so I guess I'm cool with it), even accountability buddies (which I am stubbornly going to resist).

So what habit to pick? She's got that covered. The one that supports the feeling you want to have. Whoa, confirmation bias via Danielle Laporte too? Luckily, I have already made my desire map, so I focused on feeling Resilient. I would like to feel loose clothing all around me. I would like to be bouncy and able to recover from illness and setbacks and overindulgence like a rubber ducky in a duck race.

My photo from 2015 Art Prize, of the Great Race by Michael Peoples.

Since this sounds a lot like feeling healthy, I decided to focus on my health. By remembering that food and drink can support my resilient health goals or undermine them. By finding the key stone habit and the trigger and following the program. 

So I am going for a walk every day. And the tricky part is that it can be a very short walk, as short as around the block. If it can be longer, that would be fantastic too, but around the block is nothing to discount. I wanted the trigger to be getting home from work, but here it is Sunday night, and I realized I only responded to that as the trigger, well, 1 out of 5 days. But I didn't start until Wednesday, either, so maybe next week will be a better test. 

I'm already envisioning this going so well that I'm making lists of other habits to implement or break. Maybe I can plan my meals! Clean my house! Meditate! 

But first, I have to walk around the block. 

Word of the Year: Integrity

in·teg·ri·ty

inˈteɡrədē/

noun

1. 1.

   the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

   "he is known to be a man of integrity"

   synonyms:

   honesty, probity, rectitude, honor, good character, principle(s), ethics,morals, righteousness, morality, virtue, decency, fairness,scrupulousness, sincerity, truthfulness, trustworthiness "I never doubted his integrity"
2. 2.

   the state of being whole and undivided.

   "upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty"

   synonyms:

   unity, unification, coherence, cohesion, togetherness, solidarity "the integrity of the federation"

And I think I mean it both ways. There are so many kinds of virtues, that one could never get tired of them. This also means that one could never perfect all of them either, so a little leniency  is in order. I also like the idea of being "whole and undivided". It seems like conserving the energy it takes to be two separate persons could be better used being one person who tries her best. 

Of course, focusing on one thing is always a problem for me. I am too interested in too many things. I would like to think it was a Renaissance problem, but I think it's more of an attention problem. But is there any less virtue in multiples? Not under this system? A struggle, to be sure. Not a given. 

It's one thing to have a philosophical slogan, and another to implement it. That will be the real struggle, constructing exercises to strengthen integrity. 

I like January to be the planning month, where I try on new routines and see what works, but now I'm moving past self-improvement as fixing faults, more towards building strength, much like a diet where you remove unhealthy foods, and then add in healthy ones. 

I took the Martha Beck course "The Integrity Cleanse" for the 2nd time because it's literally about my word of the year. How are you going to ignore that? And it's a little different this time. I could focus a little better since I was not so wobbly with the tools this time, but I'm still having a hard time believing it's really possible to have your every communication and action in integrity.

Which is why I'll always have more exercises to do....

Annual review in preparation for the infamous Word of the Year

In my quest to "find wiz", I have long used the Chris Guillebeau annual review approach. But last year, instead of a goal or a phrase, I was able to narrow it down to a sound (that, yes, means two different things, but still, talk about simple!) via the Christine Kane worksheet. So this year, I'm going to steal the best aspects of both for the ultimate in goal setting exercises.

Step 1 has to be the annual review, it seems. I can't go forward unless I look back.

What went well? 
I do think the dance projects went well. I was able to attend one big dance festival, an intensive, and several really good workshops. Seriously, Kaeshi Chai, Sonia Ochoa, Tribal Revolution with Zoe Jakes and Jill Parker, and then MORE Jill Parker in my hometown plus an intensive with Deb Rubin?! It was an amazing line up that I couldn't have wished for realistically.  But it really did happen. And I think that's why my holiday hafla solo went so well this year. So much amazing inspiration and training.

The career is going well, too. I'm finding my voice and learning when to use it.

And the voice, literally. After a virus wiped out half of my vocal cords, the speech rehab opened my mind about training and how important breath is to something you do every day, "naturally". Now, to remember to use my skills.

What could have gone better?
Alas, I fear 2015 will be remembered as a very sad, lonely year in my heart. But in my loneliness, I did discover the support of real friends. That's not an entirely bad thing, but definitely a little bittersweet. And that I could do "it" myself, whatever that project might be.

So did the word of the year work? How did Aw/Awe shape 2015 for me? Looking for tiny beautiful things and being amazed by them can carry you perhaps not that far, but smoothly and strongly.

Coming next: The Word of 2016.