Staring at my blank journal page this morning, thoughts flooded my mind of things I want to stop doing. This year. This Month. Today. This is just one of the many reasons I love journaling.
As a writer, it feels like a natural extension of my work. It fuels my professional work but also brings blurry corners of my life into creative and productive focus.
Here’s a quick writing exercise for you: take out a pen and paper (or open a digital document) and list 10 things you’d like to stop doing.
Your not-to-do list.
Then, pick just one thing and decide today to stop. You can revisit your list every day (or week) and keep making tiny, incremental changes to your life.
Tiny steps conquer mountains.
Here’s my list (incidentally, it came out semi-poetic; I’m thinking to add the list to the upcoming Little Book of Joy):
Today, I’ve decided to stop
Ignoring my voice
Restraining my laugh
Staying back
Holding in
Hiding truth
Covering up smiles
Listening to nonsense
Scrolling through time
Walking backwards
Fearing forwards
Sitting still when I want to move
Moving when I need to sit still
Nodding when I disagree
Accepting what I need to reject
Staying when I need to go
Dulling my shine
Quieting my voice
Regretting my life lessons
Criticizing my mistakes
Stepping on my dreams
Sleeping on my talents
Selling my heart
To strangers masked in gold
Today,
I have decided
To stop.
What have you decided to stop doing?
-Alicia-Joy
What a great list Alicia. I think that there are more things I need to do than stop doing, but maybe overloading my to do list could be one of them haha
I know the feeling, Jo: to-do list mania. LOL