Just Do It: One of Many Valuable Lessons Learned from Dot
As many of you know, Dot is my Mom. She is absolutely priceless! There are so many attributes, talents, and perspectives that make up me because of my mom's life lessons. And I'm still learning from her! One of those lessons was the "Just Do It" lesson. In a nutshell: you see something that has to be done...just do it. Seems so simple, doesn't it?
But in all actuality, how often do we pass something by simply because we don't feel like doing it or we don't know exactly how to tackle it or we're too busy doing something else and it'll mess up our multi-tasking mentality? I do that all the time! Even if it is just putting away a hairclip that has been on the entryway table for a week. Or maybe the gigantic load of laundry that needs to be folded, but by now it is so wrinkled it really should be put back in the dryer for a bit to get the wrinkles out. Ever do that? I tend to get involved in my projects up to a point and then start another because I'm really excited about it, forget about the first and before you know it, I've got 10 projects that I'm in the middle of finishing!
Dot taught me this: "Well, Kathy, if you see something that needs to be done, just do it, because (and here's the mind-blowing point) then it'll be done!" You'd think that because of it's simplicity, we should all know to do that, but when I put it into practice, wow, what a difference it made. It was more of a change of attitude than anything else.
Suddenly I was grabbing six different items as I left the family room, each belonging to a different room in the house. I just dropped them off and, ta-dah: clean family room. That pile of laundry wasn't so bad when I gave myself a reward of a Hershey's Kiss when it was all done (it's the little things for me!) When I had a big to do list, I did all the quick/easy things first and my list wasn't so overwhelming with just 3 things left to do instead of the 14 I had started with! Oh, and if I had a project I really wanted to work on, I made myself do a chore I didn't want to do first so I could really enjoy what I wanted to do! Plus, a straightened up room equals a bit of sanity for me. If I can just get one of the rooms in my house in order, I feel like I can handle life again. Cleaning up the entire house is sometimes just feels impossible. But one room, I can do that! Can you see the change in attitude for me?
If you truly want to meet someone who can help put your life in a state of sanity, you really should visit the flylady. (www.flylady.net) She was introduced to me by a dear neighbor of mine a long time ago, but it's been a while since I've visited the flylady. Her page might seem full, but if you take some time to look at what she has to offer (for free) you might just discover that what seems impossible can be accomplished. Sometimes it takes baby steps to control the chaos.
