Valentine's Day is the international day of love. Now before you yap about showing love everyday, relax and think of it like this... We're all happy for life everyday but everyday isn't our birthday so we don't expect special treatment and do extra dress up an' t'ing... same applies to V day. Doing extra because it's Valentine's Day doesn't (or at least shouldn't) translate to nothing for 364 (or 365 in a leap year lol) So please indulge the merchants.Valentine's Day celebrations have existed in some form or another for hundreds of years and according to popular history, was supposed to be a celebration of romantic love...
There was this priest who secretly married people and was imprisoned and later killed for it but while in prison he fell in love with the jailer's daughter and when he was to be killed left a note and signed it "Your Valentine" or something to that effect.
In recent years however the love theme has expanded to include love for anyone important to an individual's life so anyone can 'Be your Valentine'. I'll be the first to say this is very useful for those void of a romantic interest at this time of year.
This Valentine's season, it dawned on me that I've done a pretty mediocre job of showing myself love (and I don't mean buying myself candy or perfume). It's a lil deeper than that. I mean meaningful, measurable love. After all, if you love someone you try to look out for their best interests; yet sometimes we don't do a very good job of that for ourselves. And that's when I came up with this four point love plan.
List.
It all starts with concretizing your personal goals. This is nothing revolutionary mind you, but how often do we claim to want something without pencilling these ideas down then putting that 'to-do" list in a visible place to remind us of our pending tasks. There's a saying 'out of sight, out of mind'.
Organise.
Give yourself a deadline and get moving.
Although there's another saying, 'different folks, different strokes', I'm willing to argue that when we earmark a specific order/time line to get things done, it makes our choices/actions more deliberate and the result we seek likewise more sure. I've done this with less important things, I'm appalled that I've left the big things hanging. Organising also means identifying the necessary steps we need to take in order to effect whatever ambition we have.
Valuate.
Valuing means putting a price tag (literal or figurative) on these goals and treating them accordingly.
It never hurts to reassess and revamp. There are things in my life that have gained/lost importance as I've grown older (and wiser) and my circumstances have changed. Still, it's counterproductive if we don't decide what amount of importance to attach to something before pursuing it. Is it worth the cost?
Evaluate.
Unless you are checking up on yourself, you'll turn around and realise you're almost 40 and your life dreams have remained in that realm. It's interesting that I've spent the greater portion of my adult life in the classroom where I was mandated to use tests to periodically gauge if my students had grasped the material, yet I've scarcely applied this principle to my daily living.
Of course this has very little to do with being single or not but I thought it made for a more interesting title haha.
So here's to me this Valentine's Day. I'm about to show myself some love by getting my shit together. After all, loose bowels have always been a sign that something's wrong in the system.
