{"id":4525,"date":"2016-04-12T15:29:38","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T19:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=4525"},"modified":"2016-09-30T18:51:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T22:51:24","slug":"365122-lenten-lessons-guilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365122-lenten-lessons-guilt\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#122: Lenten Lessons &#038; Guilt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Days-365120-Lent-medical-files.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4508\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4508\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Days-365120-Lent-medical-files-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Days 365+120 Lent medical files\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>My Lent 2016 resolve was twofold:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Paper Reduction.<\/strong> Starting with my desk and including my \u201cdesk extensions\u201d (3 file cabinets and the Ping Pong table), my goal was to reduce the paper. The connection to my spiritual life was that I figured clearing the extraneous paper that crowded my life would make me more productive and help me focus on what was really important.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Listening Better<\/strong>, i.e Speech Reduction. Since paper reduction didn\u2019t seem quite spiritual enough, I added a resolve to focus on being more mindful of the sacredness of people I interact with each day. This meant listening to others more closely rather than what I had to say. Spiritually, I continue to struggle with pride and self-importance. I figured that focusing on the <em>other<\/em> would move me toward humility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How did I do? Although I made some progress, it was not nearly what I had planned \u2013 unless you consider not meeting my goals a movement toward humility. \ud83d\ude15 As with any conscious effort to grow, however, I did learn some things.<\/p>\n<p>6 INSIGHTS ABOUT <strong>PAPER REDUCTION<\/strong> &amp; <strong>LISTENING<\/strong>:<br \/>\n<strong>1. \u00a0To avoid endless procrastination<\/strong>, choose a:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Doable task<\/span> \u2013 Breaking a goal into small steps is better than aiming to eliminate world hunger. Make it something you can measure and succeed at. Reducing ALL my extraneous papers including my file cabinets was too big to do in six weeks. Even limiting it to my desk was ambitious, but doable.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Date to start<\/span> \u2013 Pick a time that you have a reasonable chance of being able to start. Sure, life might interfere with an unexpected crisis that changes your schedule, but choose a date that has a good chance of being available \u2013 as we say in Kentucky, \u201cGod willin\u2019 and the crick don\u2019t rise.\u201d Ash Wednesday made sense to start a Lenten project; but it was undoable since I was out of town.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Length of time<\/span> \u2013 If you know you only want to spend 30 minutes, 1 hour, or half a day doing a project pick something that can reasonably be done within that time. Of course you can always extend the time if you\u2019re on a roll and don\u2019t have another commitment looming, but making the task too open-ended can keep you from starting. On days I only had an hour, I picked small \u201cmini drawers\u201d to review. I saved the monster file drawer for an open Saturday.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Don\u2019t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.<\/span> Yes, it would be best to pick a doable task, a start date, and an acceptable length of time, but sometimes life isn\u2019t that neat. Eventually, I decided to just start because if I waited for the perfect time and task, I would lose another week. I decided on one small drawer and 15 minutes. It motivated me to go on \u2013 later.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. Start With Empty.<\/strong> Although it can be daunting, it ended up being more efficient to empty a whole drawer or closet and put back only those things I wanted to keep. Not only did it give me the opportunity to clean the space, but I found hidden items tucked away in corners. Most important, I had to make a conscious decision about each thing I decided to return to the space.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Sorting Paper Can Be a Spiritual Experience.<\/strong> Going through my old papers became an exercise in deciding what was trivial and passing from what was important and enduring. It was like a mini life review. I noticed people on my Rolodex who had died, businesses that had closed, people who had moved. I noticed that somethings I once thought were important to save were now obsolete or I could get the information online \u2013 like old computer manuals and directories. I wonder what things I think are very important to do today, may change as my life circumstances change. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365118-cleaning-my-desk\/\">Cleaning My Desk 1<\/a> \u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365119-dancing-desk-cleaning-3\/\">Dancing &amp; Desk Cleaning 3<\/a>. \u00a0Other papers were sentimental but there was not a need to keep them. I just needed time to be emotionally ready to let them go.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Let Go of Guilt. <\/strong>Guilt can be motivating, but often it just blocks energy needed to act. Rather than wallow in guilt about not being able to start on Ash Wednesday, I started a week late. Rather than beat myself up for not doing this summary on Easter, I\u2019m two weeks late. Rather than give up, I\u2019m still blogging. It\u2019s OK. I\u2019m learning to prioritize the important tasks from the less important ones. It also may be a sign that not only is it necessary to let go of guilt but also to let go of some things on my \u201cTo Do\u201d list. Sorting the less important from the essential is a life skill that goes beyond paper reduction.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Days-365117-ear.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4445\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4445\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Days-365117-ear.gif\" alt=\"Days 365+117 ear\" width=\"76\" height=\"119\" \/><\/a>5. Listening Takes Repetition.<\/strong> I like to think of myself as a good listener. After all I\u2019m a trained counselor. Still, it\u2019s hard to put aside my own agenda and really be present to another human. But, I had a plan. Each morning I would review the people I would likely see that day. Since our kids are sprung and I work at home, this was a small number. Some days I don\u2019t even need to go out of the house so I included phone calls. I also included clerks at stores or a restaurant I might be at. I intended to look at each person mindfully and listen fully to what they said, even if it was just, \u201cHave a good day.\u201d Time after time, I would leave a store or a meeting and realize I had forgotten. Unfortunately I received a physical prompt when I got \u201cairplane ear\u201d after a trip (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365118-listen-up-desk-cleaning-2\/\">Listen Up<\/a>) Perhaps my difficulty hearing people could be a reminder to listen more closely. It helped but changing a habit takes a lot of repetition. With each day\u2019s renewed resolve fewer opportunities slipped by, but it\u2019s a slow learning curve.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Always Have Something To Do While on Hold.<\/strong> I am often on the phone with service personnel trying to figure out bills, internet glitches, etc. I\u2019m also aware that as helpful as the internet can be to modern life, things like social media and promotional emails can be time hogs. No matter how lovely the music, rather than listening to it while I\u2019m waiting for the support person to get back to me, I\u2019ve found it more useful to spend that time checking websites that I don\u2019t normally take the time to read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Lent 2016 resolve was twofold: Paper Reduction. Starting with my desk and including my \u201cdesk extensions\u201d (3 file cabinets and the Ping Pong table), my goal was to reduce the paper. The connection to my spiritual life was that I figured clearing the extraneous paper that crowded my life would make me more productive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[30,17,43],"class_list":["post-4525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paper-less-lent-2","tag-faith","tag-musings","tag-tmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4525"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4537,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4525\/revisions\/4537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}