One Checkbox At a Time

Things are getting done. I am pleased to see that my to-do list is shrinking a bit as things are being crossed off and other things are being placed on the list. 

I managed to finish my first Sunday School video yesterday (the BIG task I was putting off due to my feelings that I might fail...). There are things that need to improve, but I think it wasn't all that bad for a first attempt and for making something up from scratch. We will see if anyone actually looks at it. I already have ideas for the next round.

I have one big thing on my list for today - finish my sing about mini edition for January 2021. It gets released tomorrow, so I need to finish it up. That is added to today's list along with laundry and dishes and getting more done in the craft room. My goal is to get enough of the room picked up so I can start up my robot vacuum, Huey, and get him going again. 

I like lists, mainly because (I think) I am a visual person. I enjoy seeing my to-dos getting smaller and the list shrinking as I am working on things. I am trying to establish another way of doing this type of list. I select post-it notes that have my weekly tasks written on them to do during the evening hours. Once a particular task is finished, I throw away the post-it. I am trying to put all of the steps to tasks on the post-its so that I can feel like I have accomplished things even they are as small as gathering all of the dirty laundry in the laundry area. On some days, that is a major accomplishment!

I am taking a "one-step at a time" approach to life these days.

I have set my R2-D2 timer to 30 minutes. If I haven't finished this post by that time, I will leave it and do a household chore for the next 30 minutes. After that, I will return to writing. This is the format that works best for me when I have lots of things that I want to do, but I've nattered on long enough about that topic in this blog that I am sure most of you would like me to cover ANY other topic.

In my list of to-dos, I have placed a focus on professional development. I feel like I have stagnated when it comes to doing my job. I do what has worked for many years, and it is no longer that challenging. I am looking for something that reinvigorates my music therapy spark, and I am at a loss for figuring out what that could possibly be.

I feel that I do my job well, and I enjoy teaching others to do my job, but my options are limited. I cannot move up in the organization because there is no other job that my employer offers that I fit. I basically have this job through retirement (in six or seven years), so it is imperative for my work health and well-being that I find my own ways of keeping interested and moving forward in my chosen profession. Every thing that I want to do is something that I will have to do on my own, and I am seeking music therapy community. I haven't had a music therapy community to be part of (because posting things on social media just doesn't count) for a very long time, and now I am no longer attending conferences because there just isn't anything there for me any more. Perhaps it is time to look outside music therapy for inspiration.

I will start with music therapy articles since they are a benefit for me as an AMTA member. Let's see what folks back in 2017 were thinking were the trends of music therapy. I'm going to see if any of those ideas seem to spark any kind of interest.

I am trying hard not to become one of those professionals who think that they know everything there is to know about music therapy because I know that I don't. I just can't find the next thing I want to learn about right now. It is time to move forward into the next epoch. (Good word, right??)

My timer is going off, and this seems to be a good place to end this talk. Check blogging off the list and move on to laundry and craft room organization. One checkbox at a time. 

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