The Blend Coffee and Wine, 9510 Buffalo Rd, Palmetto, FL 34221
I’m sitting in one of my favorite chain coffee shops, The Blend. This location is new to me but I’ve visited several in Pinellas County, although always through their drive-through. Today I have time to stop and go inside so I’m enjoying their Coffee Flight, a selection of their specialty coffees. They usually have two, their regular and a seasonal. I’m doing the regular and it is delicious!
I’m impressed with myself. It’s only been two months since my last coffee conversation, not two years. My last conversation was about pondering slower goals. I really took this to heart while doing my annual last week of the month planning session. Normally I set very specific resolutions and try to work out a plan to achieve them. I’m really trying to get away from that Type-A sort of behavior these days.
Beyond the goal setting, I’m also trying to incorporate that slower mode into my weekly/daily planning as well. Instead of a rigid to-do list for the day, I’m putting down loose goals, intentions or nothing at all.
So how’s that going for me? Um…weird. I’m finding it difficult to get going in the mornings. I linger over coffee on the porch a little longer. It’s also easy for my attention to get hijacked like spending the afternoon on the computer chasing squirrels. I’m definitely getting ‘less done’ than I would…maybe?
There is an upside though. My stress level is MUCH better. If I could put that in all caps, bold, sparkles and have it shoot fireworks on your screen…I’d do it. When I was planning my day/week and something unexpected popped up it would totally derail me and my attitude. I would feel like I was behind or off. Now, I am able to take disruptions and interruptions in stride.
My stress level is MUCH better. If I could put that in all caps, bold, sparkles and have it shoot fireworks on your screen…I’d do it.
Last week I was on the phone a lot. I’ve got a good friend in Texas I’ve reconnected with over the past few months and we try to talk once or twice a week as she drives into work in the mornings. I talk to one or both of my daughters almost daily…sometimes multiple times a day. I also talked with a very good friend for nearly two and a half hours. We text often but realized we hadn’t had a phone conversation in over a year. Although I often multitask while on the phone, it was still a disruption to my plans/intentions/etc for the day.
But I was ok with that. In fact, in my journal Friday morning, I was reflecting over the connections I had that week and wrote “People over Plans.” Not ten minutes later my husband walked out on the porch where I was sitting. He sat down and apologized for ‘disrupting my plans.’ I laughed and told him what I had just written…and assured him it was not a problem at all.
So living a less scheduled life has its ups and downs. I feel less productive but I feel more connected. It’s also highlighting how much value I put on productivity and how that may be a problem. Uber-productivity is definitely a Type-A trait.
I’ve been butting my head against the notion of doing things that I don’t deem ‘productive’ yet that do need to be done. And I realize that most of them have to do with self-care. Why do I feel like taking care of myself is not productive?
That will be a topic I ponder from now till my next Coffee Conversation.
How about you? Did you set goals or resolutions for 2025? Trying to embrace a lower gear like me? Tell me about it.