My mom, Fran, has lots of 'Franisms' that she's shared with my brother, sister and me throughout the years. Her favorite seems to be 'life is not a dress rehearsal.' Usually this is said to encourage us to try something new or expand our horizons in some way. Other ‘Franisms’ include 'that's the kind of hairpin she is' when describing someone's unique style, 'blood is thicker than water' when emphasizing the importance of family' and 'when you have to clean, don't think about it too much, just start' to inspire action rather than thinking about taking action.
This last 'Franism' to clean rather than think about cleaning, rings particularly true for me. I love a clean house but I don't enjoy the process of cleaning. When I start thinking about all the things that need to be done, I get tired before I even pick up a dust rag or mop.
Cleaning isn't the only thing I've been known to over think. Rather than over thinking and under-doing, my new battle cry has become--'something is better than nothing and today is better than tomorrow.'
If I take a small action toward a goal today--whether that's 10 minutes of exercise rather than no exercise at all, reading 5 pages of a book I want to read even if I can't sit down and read for an hour, filing one piece of paper on my desk even if I can't get through the whole stack, I feel better.
When I think of what I 'should' do or what I 'have to' do, my energy drops. When I take some small action right now, my energy increases.
Writing this blog is one of the things I've been thinking about for awhile. Today I took this small action.
How have you found taking small, consistent actions beneficial?
Carol, this seemingly simple tip you share is extraordinarily powerful -Fran was right on! I created a six figure home based business one small step at a time. I also spent more than half my life not exercising and being overweight. I started with walking 1 block and with that small step, I've since figured out how to sneak exercise into my life in ways I enjoy and have maintained a weight loss of 30 lbs for nearly 10 years. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDelete