(Before I start... Hail Mara! Only a few small changes have already resulted in small rewards - last week brought Amber a temp job right after we re-did the altar and this week we got some additional benefits once I added a water offering. Small scale shoaling seems to be working, anyway...)
This post was inspired by number 5 on my list: move your set point.
Deb has already written a couple of great posts about the importance of moving your set point in the direction of More Fabulousness. Deb's Ideal Self is a little more in-line with Amber's than mine, I have to admit.While the direction she's going is in many ways my opposite, though, the points stand.
Picturing my ideal self tells me where my set point should be, even if it isn't there yet. Amber and I have been doing a lot of talking lately, and some planning for the future in broad strokes. At one time we both thought we wanted to remain renters in the long term, to stay childfree, and basically to remain mobile and adventurous, always ready to move.
Well, first it occurred to me that I hate moving. I moved every year with my ex, and before that twice a year in college. I'm tired of moving. Then both of us realized that our hobbies are not really suited to apartment living. I want a forge. She wants a floor loom. We both want a garden. Our current studio doesn't even have a patio. Suddenly we're quite a distance from our goals, aren't we? And that's not even mentioning that we want to pursue adoption.
Right now I make enough that we get by, but we don't have a lot extra. Not enough to get the bigger apartment we'd need to adopt, anyway. Amber is looking, but I don't need to tell you what the job market looks like. And I don't want to do this forever.
My ideal self is a metal sculptor and a blacksmith, not a paper-pusher, with a big garden and space to experiment with solar power, woodworking, and other stuff. Now, "dressing for the job you want" is not really an option - welding masks are not really acceptable under dress code at work - so that part will require some thought. But in my off-hours? Sure. And the important thing is not actually the dressing (though I'm going to give that some further thought) but the way I act.
(Incidentally, I hung a pair of my own paintings in my office. I've gotten several complements on them. I think that qualifies as a start.)