Welcome to week 3 of The Freedom Diaries. There’s been a lot going on in my world this week, but there’s been one underlying theme running seamlessly throughout – powerful partnerships.
What do I mean by powerful partnerships? They’re partnerships that help you move forwards in your life and achieve your goals and aspirations. And these have appeared in numerous forms this week.
Accountability partners
My main goal for this month is to work on writing my book. To help me stay on track with my writing routine, I have an accountability partner. We’re both working on our own books but we check in with each other every weekday after we’ve completed our writing for the day.
I’ve never worked with an accountability partner before – I’m a list kinda gal. But this method has been very effective in helping me to develop a regular writing routine.
In addition to checking in via messages, we also meet virtually for an hour three days per week to work on our projects. It’s helped me to stay focused, avoid the lure of social media and external distractions and given me a protective little bubble in which to write. In fact, it’s been so successful that now there’s a small bunch of us who power through our project work together.
What about the weekends? Weekends are purely optional and I go with the flow. However, this weekend I spent a little bit of time doing research and planning, seeking inspiration from others in the self-publishing world. It helped me to unpick some to the foundations of publishing, so I know what to expect when I’ve completed my book.
Planning date
Myself and CP went on a planning date on Tuesday. I’d noticed that after living together for four months we were teetering on the edge of getting stuck in a rut.
We’d spend our spare time together either watching movies, going for walks or visiting our favourite haunts for lunch. We both love doing these things, but I felt like they were becoming our go-to habits rather than being things that truly ignited us in the moment. Plus, I wanted to avoid drift.
So, I suggested we take ourselves to a local cafe for a planning date. The idea behind it was to make two separate wishlists using the following headings:
- Places we’d like to go
- Things we’d like to do
And that was it – simple! It was such a powerful experience and we came up with a wide range of ideas for each list.
But what I became aware of was that we’d never really sat down and discussed the things we’d like to do together. Normally, one of us would suggest something and the other would generally go along with it. But planning together was powerful.
Our lists ranged from local events we’d like to attend to holidays we’d like to have. Changes we’d like to make to the house to hobbies we’d like to try out together (if anyone knows a good app for learning to play chess, please let me know).
We’ve agreed that we’ll have a monthly planning date to check-in on our list, but we may also expand it to talk about our financial, home and career goals, as well as our aspirations.
So I think our planning date is going to mark the start of something exciting – powerful partnerships are the way forward!
In other news…
This week has also seen me decluttering, shredding old paperwork and listing items on eBay and Facebook marketplace. It feels good to be releasing things that no longer serve me. There’s a lot to do, but consistency is key.
A day was spent painting my parents cast iron planters, sadly I chose the hottest day of the week to tackle such a task. However, I had a furry companion in the form of Henry, Mum and Dad’s dog, overseeing my work & being a cuddle machine. Amazingly, no paint was spilt.
I also went for my second Covid jab on Thursday and my Dad treated me to a full-English breakfast afterwards, which was lush. We also went on a mini shopping excursion – go us!
My daily indulgent hours have continued and I’ve been taking more time for myself. Some of these hours have been spent reading I Will Teach You To Be Rich, going for walks and watching Shiny_Flakes (which was fascinating!).
And that’s it. There’s no wonder I feel tired after such a full week. But I’ve had a wonderful time and I’m looking forward to nurturing these powerful partnerships further.
What powerful partnerships have you experienced? Or if this post has inpired you, be sure to let me know how your journey goes.
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Image courtesy of Tim Mossholder