My favorite time of year begins with Halloween and runs straight through the new year. It always goes by too fast, and long after it’s over I find myself looking back on this time of the year as magical and transformative. As this year of consciously living an extraordinary life draws to a close, I’m grateful for the awareness that this journey brought to my daily living. I’ve loved the reading the comments and emails I received as I made a daily step forward. They kept me going and reminded me of why I hit the “publish” button every day.
October Accomplishments:
1.) Continue work on Innovation Station content and action plan.
I had several fruitful conversations this month that introduced me to potential partners for a pilot. These conversations were encouraging, and helped me see how important this program could be to the students who participate in it. Setting up a pilot is moving slower than I’d like, but I know how important it is to find the right partner for this project. There’s a lot at stake with this pilot, and I have a clear vision of how I want it to unfold. It’s important to find a partner school whose supportive of and enhances that vision.
2.) Spend some quality time with my new pup, Phineas. I adopted him unexpectedly in September, which was a huge surprise goal that has brought so much richness to my life in a very short time. This month I’ll take him in for an evaluation to become a therapy dog. I’d love to get us into the Reading to Dogs program.
Phineas is a much younger dog than I thought he was when I first adopted him. He’ll need to grow out of puppyhood before he’s ready to be a therapy dog. I am surprised by how quickly we’ve bonded and how easily I made room for him in my life. This little guy is teaching me a lot about love and resilience and compassion. He’s making me a better human being.
3.) Continue working on yoga and personal finance book. Now that I’ve got a loose structure in place, I can start to fill it in with the fun stuff.
This has been a gratifying and productive month for the book. I’ve been getting lots of encouragement and gathering resources to fill in the lines I’ve drawn. It’s becoming clearer and clearer to me how much this book is needed.
November Goals:
1.) Fully embrace the holidays. This is the first holiday season since 2006 that I’m not attached to a retail business. I love retail but it makes a mess of the holidays with its rapid pace. This year will be the most relaxed holiday season I’ve had in a long time and I plan to take full advantage of it.
2.) Planning, planning, and more planning. Because the holidays can be busy times, movement on projects that require outside input can be challenging. People are away on vacation and pre-occupied with tasks like holiday shopping. As a result, I’ll be using this holiday season to plan for post-holiday action.
Start decking the halls, light a few candles, and make time friends and family. We need every shred of holiday spirit we can get!
Christa Avampato 