Day 8 - Easier Said than Done

Posted on February 11, 2010 12:00:00am, by Gerrianne Clare

Have you ever had one of those days that life is great, you are in your groove, you are on top of the world then all of a sudden you are racing around like a chicken with its head cut off? 

As I mentioned earlier, I came home from vacation to a notice from Revenue Canada that my business was being audited. I was a little nervous initially but after using some whole brain posture and breathing, I was able to put it off until the next day. I had spent time at the end of Day 5, getting together receipts etc. and was quite encouraged at how well organized I was. I still had a ways to go but I went to bed that night feeling quite encouraged. Day 6 began as I described above. After my second client left, I ate a healthy lunch and set out to complete getting the information together for the audit.

Wow, what a switch from the morning. 

 To put a caveat on this, I am really quite organized however when I look at how I was working for the two years that this audit is covering,  I had an office downtown and an office in my home, I also had desktop computer at home and a laptop for my business. In my usual state of loving the moment I sometimes jump into something because it feels good but I have not fully completed what I needed to get done earlier. What this translates into is; if I feel like writing an email to someone when I am on my home computer, I will do that. If I have some receipts that need to be filed, I will put them in an envelope to file and they sometimes don’t get filed. To try and amass all of the receipts I needed to for this given period of time was a challenge. I knew I had them all, however my “in the moment” filing (or lack thereof) got the better of me. 

I started to stress.

I was trying to find one particular receipt and I could not find it anywhere. I started to rifle through binders, envelopes and emails (on both computers) to find something that showed I had attended this conference and the corresponding expenses. I could not find it anywhere. My husband arrived home late and I was still in my office hunting. We had dinner and I went back to the office. I decided to use my timer and set the intention that I would work for only another 45 minutes, do what I could and then go to bed.

 I found the receipt that I was looking for, but now, I had another that was missing – but I knew I had it earlier. To make a very long story short, the timer went off, I said to myself, “I don’t care that I said I would only do this for 45 minutes, I need to get find this other receipt because it is here somewhere”. Another hour and a half later, I fell into bed, totally aware that I did not use my tools to get me grounded and also laughing at myself because I had coached my client earlier in the day about doing exactly what I set out to do in the evening. Set the timer, breathe and complete what you can in that time frame. I did not listen to my own advice.

Day 7, I decided to use my tools. 

After working with a couple of clients in the morning and preparing for the workshop I am delivering this weekend, I got to work on completing my audit work. I took some deep breaths. I paid attention to my physical sensations, noticed my surroundings. I asked myself “what am I doing right now”. This question helped me to get into the room and really connect with my present moment. When I went to bed on the night of Day 7, the audit information was all together ready to go to the accountant. 

This morning, I feel energized and excited about the work I am doing. Lessons learned from the last two days:

1)      Even though you know what you should be doing, it feels good sometimes to be a rebel and do it differently.

2)      Be more conscious with my filing of receipts. My “in the moment” filing system is ineffective. I want to be more conscious about ensuring I put things where they need to go.

3)      Be willing to laugh at my foibles. I will be the first to tell you that Living in the moment is a beautiful way of being, however, there are times when it is really hard to achieve that state. Learning to laugh at myself and tell the truth is liberating.

Let me know how you are doing with your journey of living in the moment. Thanks to all of you who have emailed and let me know you are enjoying this blog. 

I look forward to blogging with you soon.

Gerrianne