As we all know, January is the traditional time to make a list of resolutions to improve our behavior.
For those with executive functioning challenges, it may be a time to make “resolutions” to edit time management behavior and even clean up the piles of unfinished business we tend to have. Despite the best of intentions, New Year’s resolutions don’t have a good track record for creating lasting behavior change.
I invite you to begin your New Year a different way – draw your future.
Say what? That was my response almost fifteen years ago when Dr. Ellyn Arwood at the University of Portland gave me that unexpected suggestion. I was seeking her counsel as I was just beginning to understand the connection between my brain and my time-management behavior. I felt that I was at a crossroads (which turned out to be true) and I didn’t know how to proceed.
“But what do I do next? How do I plan my future?” I pleaded.
She calmly said, “Just draw it.”
So, I’ve been drawing my future, my life’s dreams and desires and goals ever since. I have a date with myself every January first. Before the rest of the family stirs, I sit down with a cup of tea, a blank sheet of paper and drawing tools – sometimes pencils, sometimes markers, sometimes pastels. I draw myself in the middle. I pause and then I dream about what I’d like to have happen in the coming year.
There is something perhaps a bit magical about putting your future dreams down on paper where you can see them. Somehow it makes them real, possible. So many, very many, of my visions for my future have come true, thanks to this practice.
Take a moment to draw YOUR future. Keep you picture in front of you to inspire you to action.
May your New Year be one of health, prosperity and joyful action.
Marydee
