In my dream world I would go to bed earlier to get up an hour before my kids. I would spend a few minutes meditating, then reading, I would workout while listening to personal development. I would make a cup of tea and drink it before the kids woke up. Then, probably in my workout clothing I would be ready to go and face the day with a positive and energetic attitude when the kids wake up.
In my reality world I go to bed too late just about every night so excited to get those extra few minutes at night kidless. I'm sucked into books, projects or television shows with my husband. I wake up as I hear the bedroom door open, frankly I usually wake up before then and wait to hear the bedroom door open. At that point I grab my glasses and try to get whichever kid woke up first to go back to sleep or at least stay quiet enough as not to wake the other kiddo. I have about 1.5 seconds to warm up from sleep to Ready-to-go Mom and Girl Boss. I've decided that I needed a mantra or a word that would get me in the mindset that the extra hour of me time would give. One word to focus me for the day and get my head right.
This proved to be more challenging than I thought it would be. For starters I have a lot of goals and a lot of things I want to get done in 2016 and although they do work together they don't exactly fit into one word. On one hand I want to work on being patient and calm with my kids. I want to suck up each moment the best I can and enjoy the little special times we have together, both these little ones and the one on the way. On the other hand I have big goals from a business perspective and want to be fierce and focused and make this a big year for our lives and our family. I will be stepping out of my comfort zone and I will be aggressive and I am ready to go.
So you see my dilemma. Is there really one word that can focus me to do those things both the first thing in the morning and all day long. Finally I landed on the word engage. As in pledge myself to that moment with my children. Focus myself to the task at hand. (The more I read the more it is evident to me that we can't really multitask.) Give attention to my goals and the people on my team that I work closely. To take part in things greater than myself.
I want to be engaged. Engage others. Give attention.
He said, "Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough." ― William Saroyan