Living a Distilled Life
Posted on 29. Jul, 2010 by catherine in Blog
When I set out to start this blog, I had one objective: to stash my beloved recipes online. I spent a lot of hours learning how to set up a site, learn blogging software, and attempt to set up something that looks fairly easy to read.
Once my site was up and running, I began to look for ways to improve my blog. It’s nothing fancy, I’ll admit that. When I check out other blogs, mine looks like a preschooler’s effort. I checked out ways to drive traffic to my site, to “monetize” (fancy blogger talk for earning money), and otherwise attract readers.
Somehow this effort began to feel empty to me and distracted me from my original intent. While I respect all the fancy bloggers out there, I quite simply do not have the time to build a fantabulous site with all the bells and whistles.
This whole process has led me back to the origin of the name for my site, The Distilled Life. To me, living a distilled life means focusing on doing activities that reflect my priorities.
I began thinking about all this while listening to a presentation given by a respected woman in the fitness industry, Chalene Johnson. I could write a separate post about this wonderful gal. If you have ever tried TurboJam at home or TurboKick at the gym, you can thank this great instructor. I also use her ChaLEAN Extreme series at home and love it. [Disclosure, I am a certified TurboKick instructor although I currently do not teach any regular classes] Chalene also has a line of way cute workout clothing, and recently released a series of motivational talks on CD.
Chalene’s Facebook and Twitter posts are unique: rather than tell us all of her fabulous existence (which would be well-justified), she instead reminds people how they can better themselves. She frequently asks others thought questions such as, “What have you done to improve your confidence?” I love that she makes it about others instead of herself.
Awhile back, I found one of her lectures on YouTube entitled, “11 Steps to Low Stress and High Rewards.” This clip shows step 1, so you’ll want to find the remaining steps on YouTube on the "suggestions” side bar.
If you have time, I highly encourage taking a listen. Actually, even if you do not have time, you need to listen to her or anyone else who would have you think about the way you spend your time.
Basically Chalene encourages you to make a list of your five priorities, and make daily task lists that honor those priorities. It sounds simple in theory, terribly difficult in practice.
But it’s so important. Now, more than ever.
Why? With social networks, websites, blogs, texting, emails, and a well-apped iPhone, our time becomes easily wasted. So much can get in the way of our accomplishing our goals and honoring our priorities. It’s easy to become distracted when there’s so much vying for our attention.
I began listing my priorities after hearing her lecture and really thinking about how I can meet them on a daily basis. One of my personal priorities centers around making my house a home and this blog helps me accomplish that. Somehow it seems less important to spend time chatting on social networks (although I admit it’s a blast!) and instead developing a recipe my kids loved so I can repeatedly make it.
In short, to live a distilled life that reflects what matters to you: write your priorities down! And do those daily tasks that reflect these priorities.
Happy living!
