Stating My Principles

Good morning!

Today is a great day.

Today my job is to feel good. My job is to start the day feeling good, and then to continue reaching for the better feeling thoughts throughout the day.

I will encounter contrast today. Things will not be exactly how I imagined or hoped.

The negative thought patterns will be tempting. I may stumble down those paths.

That's okay.

I can get back out. If I find my mood slipping, I will take a time out. I will sit down and take a deep breath. I will get my brain back to baseline. I will think about something that makes me feel good.

I will restart the good thought patterns before I let the negative energy build momentum.

I will keep investing attention in good thoughts and build good momentum.

If I don't, there is always tomorrow. I won't beat myself up, even if things aren't going right.

The goal is to stay in a place of feeling good as much as possible.

This is a decision I need to make over and over and over. All day, every day, for the rest of my life. I will choose to think the better feeling thought.

There are billions of thoughts I could choose to think in any moment. I can greet each day with love in my heart or I can greet each day with a gripe about the ways people let me down yesterday.

The love feels far better.

I have a choice right now. Are you going to have a great day? Are you going to embrace challenges as opportunities? Are you going to choose to love even when people make it difficult?

Choose the better feeling thought!

Everything I do will be better because of it. My capacity to solve problems and generate creative new ideas is much higher when I am feeling good.

Take back your attention. Choose where you attention goes.

If I am going to be a slave to habit (as all people are), I choose to form good habits and become their slave.

Generate good energy.

Focus this attention and energy on the things that are most important to you.

What's most important to you? What do you value most? Where do you want your energy to flow?

I value family happiness, so I will enjoy the process of supporting our family and make time to enjoy the day together.

I value health, so I will take care of my mind and body. I will rest when I need rest, I will eat food that nourishes and gives energy.

I value wealth and security so I will create more value than I consume and manage my capital well. I will take care of our farm with the 7th generation in mind.

I value inner peace so I will invest time in rest and relaxation. I will reflect often. I will meditate. I will use my commonplace journal to keep track of my thoughts.

I value order so I will put things where they belong. I will take the time to finish what I start. I will write things down. I will use a system. I will organize.

I value simplicity so I will feel better with less. I will let go of things that do not bring me joy. I will think happy thoughts. I will spend time in nature for the joy, strength, and energy it gives me.

I value humour so I will sing and dance and laugh and play.

I value trust so I will have faith that good things are flowing our way. I accept my role as a co-creator, which means I don't have to have it all figured out. My job is to feel good. I will send good vibrations out to the world through meditation, visualization, and prayer.

I value gratitude so I will be grateful.

I am grateful for this challenge and the excitement I feel for the coming month.

I am grateful for good music. I love blasting music that makes you want to dance and sing. Talk about good energy!

I am grateful for exciting projects to work on. It feels good to wake up looking forward to the work I want to do each day.

I am grateful for this farm. I know I've said this before, but I really am so grateful to be living and working here. Thank you to the Conservancy. I love it here.

I am grateful for Mike's help on the farm. There is so much work to do to bring this whole vision to life, and Mike is a huge part of making it all work each day.

I am grateful for Obsidian. This is a really good writing tool that is helping me organize my thoughts better than ever before.

I am grateful for my dogs. They greet me each day with unrestrained enthusiasm for whats to come. They are a good reminder to enjoy what's right in front of you.

I am grateful for good books. I am grateful for the book Wolf Solent that Mark lent to me to read. The book is challenging to read in a good way, which I'm enjoying very much.

I am grateful for the cup of coffee that I will be drinking very soon!

I am grateful that I found a place to order 300+ paw paw trees! I thought everyone was sold out and happened to find a bunch from a local nursery. Awesome!

I am grateful for the Catalyzing Agroforestry program that is allowing us to get our tree project off the ground in a serious way.

I am grateful to all of you wonderful people who are reading along with this crazy journey.

That's the kind of stuff I write each morning.

Like I said yesterday, I follow the same pattern each day but I write new content.

In other words, I'm not just copying the same things each day. I don't go out of my way to make it different either.

I normally do this with pen and paper.

When I get to other side of the gratitiude journal, I shift over to Obsidian notes to plan my day.

This just starts with what I call my "daily dump". Obsidian has a feature called the daily note, and I just dive in and start writing the thoughts that are in my head.

Here's an example for today.

Today is a good day!

I'm excited to try to get this challenge off to a good start. This forum thing should be interesting. I don't know if people will actually use it, but if we did I bet it would be a really fun and productive space so it's worth the shot.

I need to finish getting those trees ordered. I have most of the live stakes I want arranged, but I need to find a good place to take elderberry cuttings locally. I'd like to find free, local ones if at all possible.

I want to finish my Common Wealth of Trees letter. The meeting with the Deptartment of Ag guy is coming up on Friday morning. I should have all this done and submitted either today or tomorrow.

Today is also the first day of the AI experiment with Bert and Greg. That will be at 4 for 25 minutes.

There is a lot to do today. I need to stick to the Pomodoro system as much as possible if I want to get all this done and still leave time to play with the kids and relax.

So what's all on the list so far?

• Check the forum.
• Go on a walk.
• Milk Gengar.
• Post challenge content for the day.
• Work on CoT letter.
• Finish ordering trees.
• Order berry bushes.
• Order seeds.
• AI call w/ Bert and Greg @ 4.
• Send texts about elderberry cuttings.
• Play with the kids.
• Read.

Then from here, I would organize all these things into when I want to work on them. As I do this, I'm being mindful of how long I want to invest in each thing, which things have to be done at certain times, and other things like this.

This gives me a map for the day. This overview is most useful when things don't go to plan, because it allows me to reflect on how much still needs done and what won't get done based on what I choose to do with the rest of my time.

I very rarely have a day that goes exactly how I plan, but this exercise helps me get more of the most important things done on a more consistent basis.

For planning my time, I use a combination of Pomodoro and time blocking.

As I've talked about before, I like Pomodoro because of the built in break for review and reflection every 30 minutes. I check back in on where I am at on my map during these breaks.

Anyway, there are many things to get to work on!

Here's to a great day!

Life is good.

Here's that link to the forum again.