My “To Be” List

About 3 weeks into the COVID Shelter In Place I started feeling really anxious.  The ‘honeymoon’ of stopping my ridiculously busy work travel schedule was over and I was feeling really out of sorts.  I woke up in the middle of the night with this very clear idea that, much more important than emailing myself the next task for my never-ending to-do list, was to write a “To Be” list.  I’ve since added to it, but the initial list had the following:

 Compassionate

Playful

Curious

Open

I know I was influenced at some level by a workshop I’d recently attended where we did an exercise around “what’s one emotion you’d like more of in your life?”, and the one that I chose was Playfulness. So I set an intention for the rest of that workshop to bring Playfulness into the equation, and start building that muscle.

I now keep this list on the corner of my desk permanently, and refer to it when I’m feeling stressed out about a task I’m dreading, or even just need a re-boot in the middle of the day.  It reminds me that I can bring Playfulness or Curiosity or Compassion to that expense report or difficult conversation.  It helps, it really does!