What’s In It For Me? PYL In-Flight Entertainment (Jan 6, 2021)
By: Terri Mead
Tags: Strong Women, Piloting Your Life, Midlife Women, Setting Boundaries, 2021 Goals

Welcome Back My Focused Passengers:

I thought I was done with my 2020 reflecting and 2021 planning back in December but apparently not.

This came up as I was mulling over what to talk about in yesterday’s YouTube video. I realized that not only was I interested in new things to watch, read, and listen to, I was really noticing how women were being protrayed in the shows I was watching and the books I was reading.

The strong women characters reminded me to focus on what is important to me.

I tend to give away a lot of time to others and sometimes I benefit from the exchange, and other times I do not. When I am not maintaining my boundaries well, I end up irritable and this irritation tends to manifest in other less than stellar behavior.

As a people pleaser, it’s very hard for me to say no and I have decided that this is the year I get really good at it. I read somewhere something to the effect that when you say yes to something that is not of value to you, you are stealing from something or someone that is.Ouch!

I am still so tired and had really hoped to get organized and get some energy over the holiday break. Some other time sensitive activites demanded my attention and I chose to focus on those instead. I don’t regret my decisions but I do feel like I am behind and still very tired.

So I am circling the wagons, making sure I know what is important to me, and am refocusing on these things and people. I am going to resist the pull of the ‘shoulds’ and other people’s demands and constantly remind myself to focus on my priorities and what’s important to me. My back is tensing up just thinking about this but I talked about setting boundaries with my therapist and have some tools to test out.

Like I talk about building the bravery muscle, I am looking at this the same way. I expect that practice will make maintaining my boundaries easier over time. Every day last year I did #onebravething and have it as a daily habit in my habit tracker. I am going to come up with an equally catchy hashtag for building my boundary muscle. Any ideas on what it should be? On my walk with my tipsy co-pilot Jacqueline today, she suggested #staythefuckback. I am thinking of something a little more PG or G rated.

YouTube: Terri Mead

YouTube: What’s In It For Me? (Personal ROI)

I finally got out of the rut of only watching, reading and listening to familiar things and binged a fair number of shows on Netflix that had a lot of strong women characters as I mentioned above. I was inspired by them to focus on what’s important to me and discuss this in Tuesday’s video. We used a new camera and set up and Finn (AKA Rei) is having a great time playing with the new software so who knows what fancy schmancy stuff we are going to see moving forward. I am a little afraid to be perfectly honest.

YouTube: Not a Scaredy Cat: One Year on YouTube

I got up the nerve to watch my very first YouTube video from January 1, 2020 when I mustered up the courage to record and release the first video. What a difference a year makes! We’ve come a long way and I am looking forward to another year. In Saturday’s video, I reflected on my goals for the channel for the first year and was repeatedly interrupted by Finn (AKA Rei). Ugh! Enjoy the video.

What’s my challenge for you today? Think about what’s really important to you, write it down, and then reflect on whether what you are doing is aligned with what is important to you. If what you are doing is not aligned, make some changes.

With much love and gratitude,

Terri

P.S. Take the controls and be the pilot in your own life. It’s a beautiful day to fly, and you are cleared for takeoff.

Song: It’s My Life by Talk Talk

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