Making purpose choices: So what’s your excuse?
In last month’s Choosing Purpose Newsletter, I shared that I’ve been especially distracted and lethargic of late, which has resulted in little to no progress on projects and aspirations that matter to me. I know Hollis’ gremlins well and they provide me with lots of excuses (e.g., grief as a beloved friend suffers through her final days of kidney cancer, busyness, fatigue from taking care of our sweet grandboy a couple days a week, stress associated with the upcoming election…and on and on).
As I also mentioned last month, I’ve had it with my perpetual inaction and I promised to report on what I’ve tried to get moving and so here goes. I call my new program, “Something is Better than Nothing.” Over the past month, I’ve applied this approach to two long term, stalled goals related to exercise and de-cluttering my home. And it’s worked, at least to my satisfaction. Six days per week, I write down 2 small things that I aim to do that day related to these goal areas. When I say “small things,” I mean it. Taking a walk (short or long). Finding a box so I can pack up a daughter’s childhood memorabilia. Cleaning a sock drawer. Sorting and mostly recycling 30 years of friends’ Christmas card photos (a multi-day set of small steps). On some days, my 2 things took 10 minutes and on other days, 2 hours; the amount of time didn’t matter to me. All I’ve cared about is that I’ve done Something! I have adhered to this effort for over 3 weeks so far, on most days, completing both small steps. You likely wouldn’t notice my progress but I do and that’s all that counts. Something is Better than Nothing and I plan to continue this program, adjusting my goal to adhere 5 days a week rather than 6 – that’s a wee bit more sustainable.
Part way into my experiment, I read Robert Mauer’s book entitled, “One Small Step Can Change your Life” that describes how a Kaizen approach helps us take small steps to achieve large goals. (Read more about this book here.) In truth, I was already on my way before I read his little book, but it certainly explained my early success and makes me want to keep going. Just doing something overrides the gremlins and buffers the development of overwhelm or defeat can make habit change or super-large projects exhausting to entertain.
I do not hold myself up as some sort of paragon of self-discipline or success and know full well that the moment I upload this post, I’m at-risk of succumbing to my gremlins. But it’s a start and I’ll take it!
What about you? Are fear and/or lethargy nibbling on your toes and keeping you from what you really want to do? If so, do you plan to do about it?
Onward!