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#Cultivate2012 Least Favorite Space

What’s your least favorite room/ space in your home? What makes it so frustrating/ annoying? How can you nurture this room/ space to cultivate a better atmosphere?

I think the laundry room annoys me the most. We have shelves that seem only to house clutter and junk. Junk piles on top of my dryer. The attic is above the washer — and has stolen more than its fair share of important items and documents. It feels like we never make any progress on it, and it currently feels too cramped to comfortably do laundry.

We’ve got to change this. The laundry room is where we wash our favorite clothes and linens. We need to throw out the junk we don’t want, donate the old, small clothes, and reorganize the shelves. We need to get into the attic and repeat that same process. It’s time to get things minimized and manageable.

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#Cultivate2012 Favorite Space

What’s your favorite room/ space in your home? What makes it so special? How can you maintain its ability to cultivate your life worth loving?

I actually have three favorite spaces in my home — the front porch, the back deck, and the bar counter. Since it’s been too cold to sit outside, I’ve been trying to make time at the bar counter. I like to sit with my tea, laptop, and/ or notebooks and think. The extra space allows me to spread out my supplies and relax. I also get to enjoy staring at my kitchen. I love the shady trees that surround my deck, and I love the mountain views from my porch. Sitting outside always refreshes my attitude, too. The wind rustling through the trees, the birds singing, the clouds floating by — it’s relaxing.

While there’s not much I can do to maintain myt porch and deck so they can cultivate me during the colder winter weeks, I can nurture my bar counter better. It tends to attract clutter when I’m not home. I’m considering some new ways of maintaining our home to prevent that from happening. I’m sure we can fashion some “inboxes” or erect shelves to keep our home a little more orderly — and to keep that bar counter open for enjoyment. In the warmer months, it’s really all about pest control — I do NOT love the wasps and spiders that over-run the outside of my home.

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#Cultivate2013 January Outlook

What is your personal outlook for 2013? What do you hope to accomplish this year? What do you need to nurture in order to cultivate your intentions? Write, sketch, color, photograph, create a vision board — do what feels right. 2013 is yours for cultivation!

I’m envisioning another year of progress and cultivation. I’m going to live, thrive, and love. I’m going to grow and transform. I’m going to heal, build, maintain, learn, and teach. I’m going to relax, enjoy, decompress, and dream. I’m going to optimize and plant roots and seeds. I’m going to blossom. I hope to accomplish much this year, including feeling healthy and comfortable in my body, reducing my stress levels, healing my family, bridging the gap across Canyon Poverty Trap, celebrating my 30th with a grand party, loving my life, and following my heart. I need to nurture my health, my family, my relationships, my home, my self-esteem, and my writing. I need to nurture that which brings me joy. Overall, I believe 2013 will be a banner year in my life, and I look forward to the continued journey ahead of me.

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#Cultivate2012 Intention for 2013

Intention for 2013: Set your intention(s) for 2013.

I sat with this all month. I hoped that some grandiose notion would come to me during my prompt responses. I finally sat to brainstorm ideas — and decided a list of 13 intentions for 2013 would be a great idea. So here are my intentions for 2013:

  1. Eat healthy.
  2. Exercise regularly.
  3. Cull wardrobe.
  4. Cull crap. (Clutter, junk — whatever you call it. I call it crap.)
  5. Maintain schedules and routines with family, friends, and cleaning.
  6. Be active within the community.
  7. Pursue my career aspirations.
  8. Transform my life.
  9. Transform my health.
  10. Transform my relationships.
  11. Transform my community.
  12. Be happy.
  13. Follow my heart daily.
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#Cultivate2012 Affirmation

Affirmation: The strongest way to empower yourself is to affirm yourself and your goals. Write 10 affirmations to encourage you on your journey to cultivate your dreams.

1. I’m intelligent both from education and from my own self-directed studies.
2. I have the mental capacity to achieve my dreams.
3. I have all the resources I need within myself — I needn’t look any further than within.
4. I have a wonderful support network who are all behind me.
5. I offer a unique set of services with a unique personality and teaching style.
6. I dig deep to stay happy and make others feel happy.
7. I make the most of my life’s circumstances.
8. I have brilliant ideas.
9. I’m a rock star.
10. I can achieve my dreams and fulfill my intentions.

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#Cultivate2012 Achieve

Achieve: Let’s get even deeper into planning our next steps and ways around barriers. Identify how you’d like to feel and live when you succeed with your intentions. Review your map, actions, and barriers. What other things can you do to reach your goals?

I’d like to feel relieved, free, and effortlessly happy when I reach the clearing in the woods — when I find my way across the canyon. I need a good spot to get a running start before I leap towards my desired prize.

Besides identifying my options, choosing wisely, and working within the boundaries of reason, I have to study and research. I need to know what I’m doing with such confidence and knowledge that I cannot possibly fail. I must prepare myself to succeed. I must build my health, strength, and confidence. My body and mind aren’t properly prepared for the changes I must make in order to thrive and cultivate a life of happiness. I must feed myself good food, give myself time to move, and take time to release my thoughts and emotions through a medium that suits me best.

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#Cultivate2012 Barriers

Barriers: Roadblocks always seem to pop up. How can you plan for these barriers that will inevitably thwart your plans?

My path is obstructed by income limits, the need to feed and provide healthcare for my family, and the isolation of my location. To make more money, I need to make under a certain amount to continue my children’s medical care. (Currently, I’ve hit that ceiling.) Alternatively, I need to make enough to be able to afford the benefits that negate the need to limit myself. I’m within a community that won’t easily allow me to cross that gap. Traveling to nearby Chattanooga increases the budget for gas and decreases the effectiveness of a higher income. My distance makes me less desirable as a candidate for one of those jobs, too. I’m also blocked by my late decision to pursue a potential career as a teacher. I don’t have the same credentials as my peers, and it will take a great effort on my part to compete for a teaching position.

I know that I really desire to make the home my base. I really want to make my workshops, eCourses, products, and services negate the need to entertain alternative plans. However, my roadblocks seem far too great to simply leap over. I feel that I must carefully side-step them in order to sprint towards that dream. I don’t know how to get to a safe point with that, and no one I know has walked that path before. I cannot find wise counsel in that regard. I also need my down time to rest and recover so long as I’m on this current path. I need to find a away to make my life more comfortable sooner. Unfortunately, Uncle Same doesn’t encourage free-form thinkers. He encourages the worker bees who are willing to follow pre-set paths. He penalizes the ones who want to cater to a niche based on our own expertise. It’s easier to bear your teeth and show him your nails when you don’t have babies to worry about. To protect my family, I must be logical and rational. I can’t be too big of a dreamer right now because I must ensure their health.

[Please note: if you disagree with my last few sentences, do not simply state your disagreement. Offer me examples of why I’m wrong and ways in which to make my dreams come true. You’ll do me much better to offer words of construction and encouragement than to berate me for saying something you disagree with.]

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#Cultivate2012 Action

Action: You’ve envisioned your map — now what’s the next step? What actions must you take to cultivate your dreams?

Now that I’ve envisioned my map — my dreams — I’m ready to plan my next steps. First and foremost, I must identify ways in which to change everything. I must identify what decisions I must make in order to embark upon this new chapter. I’m writing a story of a life, and I want that life to be one worth loving. I want to look back fondly — I want to marvel over my ambitious spirit and prevailing nature.

To cultivate my life worth loving, I must explore my options. I’m considering two or three career choices that can help me find my way out of the woods. I run the risk of running off a cliff and falling into a deep ravine. I need to remember that my “forest” includes a canyon. I have to keep that vision of a canyon on my map. I need to tread carefully and intentionally. There is no longer room for error. I’ve become too old to continue making the same mistakes. I must think and act cautiously. And so I must identify my options and decide wisely. My next step could land me on jagged rocks and thorny brush.

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#Cultivate2012 Map

Map: Imagine a map existed, guiding you towards your dreams. Try to envision the route. How are you going to map out your dreams for 2013?

The current path has me following a map that leads a circle. I’m lost in the woods. I’m passing the same landmarks over and over again. The weather and time may change these same old landmarks, but they mock me just the same. I need to find my way out of the woods. I need to stop returning to the worn, circular path that traps me in anxiety and frustration. I feel so hopelessly lost, and I can’t live this way anymore. It’s time to veer off this hellish path. It’s time for a compass and a plan.

The dark road ahead won’t give me any clues as to what lies in wait. I simply know where I’d like to arrive. I’d like to find the clearing by December 2013. I’d like to find my way out of the poverty trap by then. My means to this end may not be a known yet, but I’m tired of living this life of debt and poverty. I’m envisioning a higher income and benefits by the end of 2013. I’m envisioning a background that paves the way to home-ownership. I’m dreaming of a map that gives me directions to my desires. I’m dreaming of finding a better way to live. I’m dreaming of entering my 30s as a more capable adult who doesn’t even need to rely on programs that could cease to exist at any point.

So I’m drawing a map. I’m trying to think rationally about following the course. I’m packing my resources and provisions for the treacherous journey that could await me. I’m rounding up a group of companions to help me fight my way through the dark forest of uncertainty. I plan to find my way out triumphantly. Failure is no longer an option. Finding happiness is a circle is no longer an option. There is no happiness in a rut. I must find my way — I must strive to fight my way to victory.

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#Cultivate2012 Follow Your Heart

Follow Your Heart: Did you follow your heart this year? Where will you follow your heart to in 2013?

I tried my very best to follow my heart this year. I may not have always listened to it, but as the year draws to a close I feel that I’m living with intention and following my heart’s yearnings to live on purpose — to live a life worth loving, a life in which I’m thriving.

With 2013 approaching quickly, I’m planning to “listen to the whispers of [my] heart” more often. I temper it with my mind’s rationale, but I know that my heart’s desires are pure and logical. It’s alright to want a thriving life, and it’s alright to want to follow a path less trodden. I’m going to continue following my heart and living with intention.

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