Clarity for November

I set up my November bullet journal last week and froze – what are my goals this month?

Setting goals have been hard for me lately. We’re nearing the end of the year and bloggers everywhere will be reviewing how well they did with their 2018 goals. I can tell you right now – I didn’t do very well. It’s okay – I’m not being too hard on myself. There’s a lot going on right now and I’m just trying to keep my head above water, so I’m not too worried about my ability to write three blog posts a week or finish an entire book every week!

But what are my goals on a daily basis? Goals besides washing the dishes, bathing my children, and putting food in their bellies, I mean. Sometimes it feels impossible to do anything else, but our lives are made up all of those unclaimed seconds… what should I be working towards?

That’s hard for me because I have so many interests. Should I be trying to read as many books as possible? Working on writing projects? Knitting? Sewing?? Tarot? This has been my problem my whole life – focus! If I could find a real focus, I think I could do great things. But as it is, I’m a flitter and move between projects and never really get anywhere.

So in November, I’m going to work on clarity. Clarity to help find what’s important to me as an individual person in this great, big world. In fact, I’m going to do something that might sound a little crazy, but I’ve been pondering on for quite a while: I’m going to stop eating meat this month.

I went through that vegetarian phase in college that almost everyone goes through and it didn’t last long. But since the 2016 election, I’ve been wondering what I could do in my life to lessen cruelty in the world, even just a little. Two years ago I thought seriously about becoming a vegetarian, but it seemed like such an uphill battle especially because I am so lazy when it comes to food. But I think I’m going to try. I’m currently on day 3 of no meat – so cross your fingers that I can keep it up. It’s just a small reminder to myself that we all contribute to the cruelty in this world in some way. I expect to experience discomfort and unhappiness about not eating things like breakfast sausage or bacon, missing out on some of my favorite pizza toppings, or piling up a salad instead of scooping up tacos. But that’s okay – these are such small sacrifices in the big picture.

It’s hard for me to describe how I believe this will help me focus on clarity in my life. And maybe it doesn’t. But this is a small goal that I can work toward this month that I believe will reap unexpected benefits. And maybe one of those benefits will be to find a bit more simplicity in my life and allow for an opening for me to find what I’m looking for.