Dreaming vs doing

Where did the week go? I love a long holiday weekend, but it is hard not to feel a little bit behind for the rest of the week. I've had some blog-related thoughts this week, but the actual writing just didn't happen. Bad blogger.

This week had me thinking about dreaming and doing, I've figured out I'm very good at one of these things...can you guess which one? Yeah, I'm a dreamer (but I'm not the only one...) Hence my constant posts about goals and plans and life lists. I really like the planning process. I like plotting, envisioning myself in new ways and new places; I like color-coded spreadsheets and pretty lists and doodle-covered maps. I love letting it all swirl around in my head and seeing what develops.

Sweet. But not really accurate...you'll see later when I get to the part about
having 4 alarm clocks.
Image source

But when it comes to actually following the plans, doing the work, taking the actions, sometimes I stumble. What is they say about mice and men? Add peacocks to that list. I often find myself astray. But I don't give up!

This week I decided my workout needed a little chart, so I made myself a pretty Excel sheet:

Gridlines, wherefore art thou?

I've since filled in specific daily/weekly goals and I made it my computer's wallpaper so I have to look at it all the time. I think the success/failure color-coding is my favorite part. I want to see a lot of pink!

So I started things off in my usual way. Day 1 -- success! It was the 4th of July, so I wanted to squeeze in a quick few miles. Then Day 2 -- fail. Could not get out of bed. Many snooze buttons were hit. Day 3 -- same. And while I was annoyed at myself, I really hated having to color in the blue box each day. My failure was staring me in the face, mocking me. Grrrr.

I wanted things to go differently yesterday morning, so I went to bed a little earlier, set my 4 alarm clocks (sorry neighbors!), and tried to psych myself up mentally.

Mine are scattered all over my apartment, and still I manage to oversleep. Really, it's pretty impressive.

The alarms went off, and I shut them off. I buried my head in my pillow. So tired. More sleep, more sleep! I dozed a little, and woke up again 20 minutes later. Not too late to squeeze in a workout, but getting close. I don't want to do it. My eyelids are so heavy, how am I going to lift my feet? But then...

I promised myself I would do it -- get up! I'll get a pink box! I'll feel fine once I start...just get out of bed!

This went on for a few minutes. I checked my email on my phone. I made lists in my head. The angel and devil on my shoulder really went at it. But much to my surprise: the angel won!

I got up and got out and logged a couple of sweaty miles. And it was fine. I'm definitely not a morning person, so I felt like it took a little while to get into a grove, but I got there. I didn't let my foggy head bother me. I also did my best to ignore stinky garbage truck that insisted on following me (that was a little tougher). And I made a pretty pink mark in the box.

Do you use any special tricks to keep yourself accountable? Do your plans ever go astray...and how do you get back on track?

Oh, and some exciting news to share: my first guest blog post is up today! The lovely Andrea over at Run, Eat, Date, Sleep allowed me a little space to write about one of my favorite subjects, Give Kids the World. This won't be totally new info if you've read my previous posts, but you should definitely pop over and see what's going on. It's a must-read blog if you like running, Disney, Criminal Minds, or awesome people ;)