#57

Since March 2011 I’ve been on a journey of sorts and ended up not quite where I thought I would.  I quit my job as a conference manager for a large nonprofit organization.  I was totally burnt out, stressed, and snapping at everyone at home and sometimes at work. It was time to decompress. 

(If you want a little history, you can read about my decision to leave here.)

Over the next 2 1/2 years I went from being a stay-at-home mom to a part-time church secretary, then a full-time volunteer manager and now I’m back to managing conferences.

Did I want to end where I started? Not exactly. I was expecting to make a pretty big change, and I obviously failed there. I do this conference planning thing well, though, and I’m getting paid for my knowledge and experience, which is nice. What’s not nice is having a boss that stays late often and comes in on her vacation days (as she did yesterday - all day), and this is after we talked about wanting to be with our kids more.  I thought we had the same priorities, but apparently not. 

But this time around I’ve decided to do something different.  Typically I focus on the vast amount of work I have or that this work doesn’t fire me up, and complain about the time my work takes away from my family. All of this is such an energy waster and I end up feeling tired most of the time, which doesn’t make me the greatest mom or wife. So I’ve started a project that I’ve seen around the web and decided to jump in.

101 in 1001

I have made a list of 101 things I want to accomplish in 1001 days.  That’s 2 years and 9 months. I’ve included things that involve my kids and my husband and things for myself that I’ve been wishing I had the time to do. My hope is this project or challenge will turn my focus on things other than work and put my energy back where it belongs…actually living life instead of complaining.

Many other blogs have published their entire lists. I’m not completely comfortable with that.  I’ve included some pretty personal things, so I’ve decided to share one at a time as I make my way through it. So stay tuned for some posts about my 101 list. 

#57 (hence the title of this post) is to blog more regularly - and I plan to accomplish that!

It occurred to me while writing this post that I could have gone through the bulk of a 101 list in the time since I left that original job. Who knows where I'd be!

Join me! Click the link above or just Google "101 in 1001" and get some ideas for your own list. I have one friend doing this with me. I'd love to have more come along and share your experiences!

By the way, I just heard author Jack Canfield say, “101 is the spiritual number of completion.”

Very interesting.