Calendars

Posted by Kate Traci on May 2, 2013 in Book of YOU, Tools | 2 Comments

I have too many calendars. I love them, I love planning, seeing dates, keeping track, changing the month to another beautiful picture. But I have too many. Currently I have 5 in my house. If you add my computers and phone make that 8. I use only two consistently, because well… who can use 8 calendars?

There is one I cannot give up. It is in my kitchen and shows my month at a glance. But it had to go; it wasn’t efficient. I was filling out my appointments in a paper calendar and in my phone already. Most days I would forget to transfer them to this kitchen calendar and it would get me in trouble: making appointments on top of appointments, double booking my time, so I would either have to reschedule over and over again, or race across town trying to fulfill.

But I couldn’t give this calendar up. It sat empty for three months. I was waiting. Waiting for an idea that would come… and they  always do.

 Here is my calendar now:

My Gratitude Calendar

I decided it would become my gratitude calendar. I would write down one thing I was grateful for each day. A journal of thanks to remind me why my life is so very very great, especially helpful when things feel so very very hard. It reminds me of simple things and big things.

And I love it even more.

A couple weeks ago I ran across a ted talk by Shawn Achor. Funny and inspiring he talks about Positive Psychology. Our brains look for patterns. If we train it to look for what is good, it will start finding the good on its own, everywhere. By listing three things we are grateful for each day or journaling about an event we are grateful that happened every day we 1)re-live this event 2)can physically change the structure of our brain in 21 days.

Watch it. If you don’t want to rush out and make a gratitude calendar then i’ll give you your money back… wait… Ok there’s no money here, but there is your life. There is nothing more worth your time, money, and energy. Make your life better and find one more piece of that elusive creature: Happiness. Enjoy.

p.s. I’m 36, and I still want to be “Kate the unicorn”. What about you?