Pay yourself first

Today is Saturday.  Saturday's are the day to get your work done!  These are not days for being frivolous but for getting your to-do list finished.  For cleaning out the dust bunnies and accomplishing those big projects that weigh heavily on your soul.  This is precisely why I'm sitting at Starbucks, with a toasted bagel, cream cheese, a cup of joy tea and my iPad.

Shouldn't I be cleaning house, or doing yard work, shopping or anything else that sit on my task list??  Let me ask you this:  "What will you do with your one wild and precious life"?  (Mary Oliver)

Last post I was pondering our future after cleaning.  Was I on the right path or did I need to go off road and discover a new path?  It has been a week since I wrote that post.  I dug into my question and here is what I discovered:  I need to stay on my path and I need to go off road.  It is as simple as that.

Today, I am doing the most important thing on my life's to do list.  I am listening to my spirit and soul and doing the things I would normally put off so my dust bunnies and in-box are clean and clear.  But why in the world would I put my life's joyful, exploration and heart's desires behind my dust bunnies????

My grandpa always said "pay yourself first". This wise advise isn't just for finances but for your life.  We take time to schedule our mundane, have to's, our must do's and our should do's but do we schedule our joys, our curiosities, our explorations, life's to dos?? I think life's to-do's get pushed back and squashed into a corner to make room for being busy.

Getting back to last post's question.  As it turns out I was never off my life's path.  I meandered around with a 25 year old cleaning company.  This was my training ground in creating, my Doctorate in residue free living and my master's degree in marketing, sales, finance and operations.  This January when we sold the cleaning part of our company - we also graduated!

Today, I took the early morning hours to be quiet and reflect on this past month.  What did I do?  What did I want to do?  How do I feel about this month?  What do I need to do?  I wrote down my major accomplishments, my good ones and my personal recommendations to myself.  And then I decided this Saturday is golden.   As Mary Oliver asks "What will you do with your one wild and precious day."  Will I live, explore, play and do what my spirit asks?  Or will I be a good girl and work on my inbox?  I ran in the sunshine with Sally.  I'm at a cafe writing and every ounce of my spirit is smiling!  I decided since I have graduated. I will go back on my path, my souls path and I will take my to-do list seriously.  My life's to do list that is!

So here is the question of the day:  What is on your to-do list today? And which list are you looking at?
  As always, I wish you a joyful journey,
           Denise

Old shoes on a well traveled path

Today I was asked the question "If you had an ideal client archetype which makes your heart sing... Who would that be?  What type of services would you envision providing them?"

Today is day 834 of my 1000 day journey

My husband and I have been given a rare gift.  After 25 years of owning a cleaning/restoration company we were gifted a new option.  Our company is now in the hands of a cleaning company with 55 more years experience than even we had.  This company of ours wanted to grow and thrive.  For us it felt too tight, it had a ceiling and walls; it was getting heavier by the year.  Now it is free to thrive and thrive it will- what was too tight for two people is now a source of growth and expansion for many people.

And such is life... If the shoe doesn't fit, you will get blisters.

Back to my question.  I am now free to either continue the work I have started or maybe, just maybe, that work no longer fits my feet.  Frankly, I don't know.  My brain knows what it knows, but I don't know what I don't know.  The highways in my mind are full of well traveled paths.  It is time to clear a new path.

After 834 days of running, writing and smiling, I'm stepping off my well traveled path.

My new friend who asked these questions of me.  These simple, straight forward questions might as well of asked me:
    "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
                                       A question Mary Oliver asks in her famous poem The Summer Day

I can answer his questions with thousands of words, ideas, politically correct answers, possibilities, strategies, goals, ponderings, realities, years of soul searching and yet here I am frozen in time and space just staring at those questions....

    "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
Isn't this a wonderful dilemma???  To get to ask those questions and know I don't know the answer but I have the freedom to wonder?

Life is a journey not a destination.  Pause and rest, but then move along.
   I thank you for the questions.  And I thank this gift of not knowing the answer.

For all my friends who also travel on paths- new paths and paths that are old friends.  I wish for you a good pair of shoes- shoes that fit just right.
        Denise