Morning everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was exceptionally quiet. After weeks of gallivanting it was really nice to spend some time back in my wee flat tidying up, and going no further than town which is all of ten minutes down the road!
Quiet alone time, also gives you plenty of time to think.
As I mentioned on Saturday, going home and spending some time coffee hopping , reminded me of all the hours I would spend just me, my notebook and my plans. Back then I had not only a fair amount of time to spend to myself, something which I never really appreciated, but I had a fair bit to plan. I wanted to change my life.
That’s how these Monday morning posts came about, and it is really how this blog came to life. Obviously all that planning paid off, and I am in no way saying that I would trade where I am now for then, but…
But ever since moving I’ve missed that part of me. The part that planned out her week in her notebook. That spent those hours in between shifts searching for the next opportunity, scribbling down blog ideas and getting all those thousands of ideas out of her head and onto screen and paper.
Of course this blog has kept going, and my notebook still gets dusted off more regularly than most, but those hours haven’t been a set feature in my life. They’ve been a happy accident.
Yesterday I stole myself away to a cafe, with my notebook and my tablet and a set of coloured fine liners and for three hours (the same amount of time I used to get between the lunch and dinner shifts at work) I sat and stared out at space, journalled, googled, mind mapped and swapped the google calendar I’d been living my life by for a paper one. With the dates handwritten across two notebook pages.
I’ve come to realise that this is my base line. That this is the foundation for everything else and the reason why, even though I’ve achieved some amazing things in the year since I left that old life, the reason that I’ve dipped up and down so high, so low, and so regularly, is because I let this base line disappear.
I don’t need to spend 3 hours every day living in a colour coded notebook but I do need to put time aside each week to make sure that I have the foundation laid for everything else I hope to do that week.
So here is to realising you need a solid base line, to getting back to basics and becoming the best version of yourself, however that may look for you.
Live life & lay good foundations x
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tea in your twenties 
Thanks Stephie, this was the perfect post for me to read this morning. I’ve had an out of sorts weekend doing everything other than what I wanted to do, making me feel like it was somewhat wasted and I’m feeling dissatisfied. I’d planned on exercise, making nice food, reading the book it’s taken me months to get through and putting some real time and effort into my blog, and yet I spent all weekend running around after someone else. It may be selfish, but I think this week calls for a step back and some time sorting and planning and just focusing on what I want to do rather than constantly trying to please other people. Alice xxx
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Alot of the time the best thing we can do for those people around us, is be selfish. Because if we’re not at our best how can we help anyone else be theirs? Hope you had a lovely Monday evening, spent doing whatever it is YOU needed and wanted to do xxx
“That spent those hours in between shifts searching for the next opportunity, scribbling down blog ideas and getting all those thousands of ideas out of her head” This is something I can relate to horribly. Moving forward at a sacrifice of that energy and enthusiasm and time.
I am so nostalgic about that time in my life. I miss being a theatre maker (who waitressed) I miss, feeling like, yeah it’s tough but I’m going after a dream. Lately I feel a bit like I maybe gave up on all that, even though I KNOW that all I really did was take a lightly different path. I guess what I need to do is start writing that next show I’ve been planning, and get back out there! xx
Yeah you do. I miss having more time to work on shows. Spending 40 hours a week in a ‘normal’ job and working on my show in my spare time makes it feel more like hard work, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it is, after all, work. But it feels like having the passion to do it is harder.
It makes it feel like it is a hobby rather than a necessity. Before even though actually I was doing more hours waitressing than I do now, I would spend time on my shows to keep me sane but also to justify why I was waitressing and not in a normal job. That way waitressing felt like the side line, because it was just a means to an end.
Obviously, I shouldn’t moan because I love my job now, and it is still in theatre and I am probably better at this than I am at the other stuff, but I think I lost site of the fact that I love theatre and my job, instead it sort of became a job rather than a career or passion. Does that make sense?
Wow, this has become a bit like therapy!
That absolutely makes sense. I wish I had the energy to do all the things I want to do, but I think I’m getting old. I find myself at work wishing I was making theatre and making theatre wishing that I was doing something easy that pays well. The lesson I guess is, I want everything!
Wonderful post and it speaks right to my heart. I know in myself that I need those times, those times of solitude and selfishness in the week. I usually have an hour or so to myself on a Sunday evening, just sitting down with pen and paper, peacefully planning my week ahead. They really do ground me. x
It just makes the rest of the week feel so much more focused for me, and like I haven’t lost site of where I want to be, or who I want to be. The biggest difference I’ve noticed this week is my passion for blogging coming back full throttle! xx
I love this idea, I haven’t done something like that in so long, it’s definitely overdue. It always seems so much easier to type things out and stare at a screen but it’s not the same as putting something down in a notebook and being a bit creative about it 🙂