Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:09 — 5.3MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Although I haven’t had an opportunity to play in several years, I was once a decent golfer. I played on my school’s Varsity golf team. I would like to be able to get out on the course again, but that will have to wait until things slow down a little bit, and I believe if you aren’t learning you aren’t living. Today’s episode is about finding the time to tackle tasks systematically, so that small jobs don’t pile up into insurmountable obstacles.
Have you ever played “Marco Polo” in a pool with a group of friends? If so, here’s a fun fact for you! Famous Italian explorer, Marco Polo never learned to swim!
Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum! Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
What I Learned Yesterday:
A little over one week ago, my house was pristine. The floor was mopped and vacuumed, the countertops and sinks glistened and every stray belonging and piece of laundry had found its home. I took a deep breath, looking around and felt so proud of what I had accomplished. Then, my family came home. The weather was cold and we stayed inside most of the weekend. I picked up a few stray things here and there, and continued to cook. Then, I rested. I noticed that things were getting a little messier but thought I’d be able to get to it later. I loaded the dishwasher up and set it to run, but after that, the business of life caught up with me. Pretty soon, the clean house I’d been so proud of had vanished and now the task of cleaning at all seems daunting, because I’m already so far behind! I was almost paralyzed into doing nothing because the mountain of mess was just too hard to tackle, especially while it continued to grow!
Then I remembered something I learned while I was working full-time and trying to maintain my home. I had started a program through Flylady.net . Marla Cilley, aka “Fly Lady” hosts a site all about organizing your home and cleaning, while encouraging you to fly. I found her site while looking for a cleaning schedule and found her tips to be very helfpul and encouraging. I did not follow her program to a “t”, but I did have some valuable lessons that I learned from it.
While ignoring my mess and hoping it would miraculously go away, I was reminded of the value of a clean sink. One of the Fly Lady’s first tips to people just getting their feet wet in a more organized home, is to “Shine your sink.” She encourages those just beginning the process to clean their sink until it sparkles to allow them the sense of accomplishment of finishing a task. Her hope is that by making sure the sink is clean and sparkly, there will be a sense of pride and accomplishment that will pour over into other tasks over time. Strangely enough, it works!
She’s a smart lady too, because the first thing in my house that piles up when I’m lacking for time, is the kitchen sink, and when the sink is full of dishes that need to be cleaned it’s daunting. Worse still, if the mess isn’t cleared in a timely manner – then pretty soon it grows! When I tackle this one small task, and get my sink clean, all the dishes sorted out and put away, there is less visual clutter, less stress and less chaos. When there is less chaos in my kitchen I feel more ready to tackle other areas that I may have been avoiding. It’s like a Rube Goldberg machine or chain reaction – where one small step leads to another which leads to another, and pretty soon, I’m back to normal. So, I rolled up my sleeves, thinking of Fly Lady and got to work on my sink.
Here’s What I Learned
It’s nothing new or monumental, it’s even been passed down in fables, like “The Tortoise and the Hare”. I just needed to break down my goal into small manageable baby steps. It’s not fun, but I know that all of the little steps I’m taking to become more organized and to get my home back in order will eventually help me to feel more in control of my life as a whole. It’s also not easy. I have so many time commitments and busyness scheduled into my day that I have to really plan and prepare to make time for the daily things that need to be done each day. I also know it can not stay perfect so, when I allow myself a little freedom to be satisfied with good enough, I am so much happier and so is the rest of my family. They understand that I need their help to keep this house clean and they are willing to pitch in as long as I have a plan.
Have you ever felt like this? Maybe it’s a project that you started but have yet to finish, maybe it’s a goal you’ve set that as you attempt to tackle it seems too lofty, so you are tempted to throw in the towel and completely give up? Maybe your desire to do something perfectly holds you back from taking the first step. I want to encourage you today to take the first small step. Even if it’s just adopting a new mindset.
Rather than letting small molehills become mountains, try to take the end goal and break it into manageable pieces. By taking small actions, we can steadily and consistenly move toward our goals. By taking these small steps toward success, our direction and trajectory are both aligned with our end goal and eventually, all of our baby steps will lead us to success.
I’m Mandy Wichert, and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
Follow Golden Spiral Media on Twitter at GSMPodcasts and Facebook.com/GoldenSpiralMedia. To subscribe to Stuff I Learned yesterday, visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/subscribe. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.
[sc:stuff]