Making space for magic in the to-do list

Happy Sunday, Soothers. A short one for you this week, taken from some of my approaches in my 1:1 coaching.

Often after an hour or so of coaching together, I'll ask clients to recap the following categories so I can write them up and put them in our shared coaching document as their assignments for the week.

The first:

Commitments. These are the often 1-5 or so things the client is COMMITTING to do before our next call together. They know I will have recorded them and am expecting these things to be done before our next session of coaching (external accountability works, y'all!). These commitments may involve homework or assignments I've given to the client; they may be about making a phone call they've been putting off; doing something like conscious breathing for 5 minutes every morning; applying to a new job; or having a hard conversation. Sometimes they're as simple as "clean out your desk" for a feng shui assignment I've given them; sometimes they're as big as figuring out how to say something really challenging to their spouse, and then doing it. Either way, whatever's on this list, it gets done. It's a commitment.

The second:

Possibilities: These are the items that we've talked about or touched on in our call together, but aren't as high priority as the Commitments. If the client happened to get them done - rad! But there's no pressure. I record them as notes so we can circle back to them in future sessions if we need to and have the ideas in our log, but that's it. Sometimes the Possibility is to do something like take a yoga class, or do a bit of socializing, or refresh a resume. Often a surprising opportunity comes up for a Possibility to be done that's fun and easy, and the client takes it, but sometimes they don't get done at all, and that's totally fine. They were just possibilities, after all!

The third and final:

Delegations to the universe: These are the items that we know we can't get done. Either we've tried and tried and they just keep not working out, or they're things we know we won't have time or space to handle. Often, they are the knotty situations that we just don't know how to figure out, or can't imagine we'll ever have capacity for. We need an extra helper around these sort of situations, and so I record them to a part of the coaching notes document that just goes under "I'm delegating this one to the universe." There's a sort of, 'Jesus, please, PLEASE take the wheel on this one.' Sometimes they're as small and simple as "figuring out a great birthday present for my niece," but they may be as pressing and heady as "find childcare for my twins" or "finish my book proposal" or "get that job interview." These are the ones you know you're going to show up and do your part best you can, but you need a little magic dust sprinkled on top to really get the whole shebang handled. I find this practice of delegating things to the universe bizarrely effective. Write down what you need help with in the week ahead and watch the synchronicities around them unfold.

So instead of doing a boring, lame to-do list this week, try out this method.

Write down your Commitments — what absolutely MUST get done. (And be realistic with your Commitments. You have 24 hours in a day, and at least 8 of those you should be sleeping. Don't be trying to have 53 Commitments in a week when the laws of time, space and reality dictate you could possibly only achieve 2 of them. It dishonors the process.)

Next, write down Possibilities — things that would be cool if happened, but also, shrug, it's okay if they don't!

Finally, write down what you need some extra fairy dust, invisible helper hand help with - what you're turning over to the universe.

And see what unfolds.

I bet it might be something just a little bit aligned and magical.