The Beginning

A very good place to start …

I am a terrible procrastinator—or maybe an excellent procrastinator, since I like to put a positive spin on things, but either way, I have a head full of ideas that never seem to become reality. This blog is a step toward changing that. I didn’t expect to wake up on April 1 with a whole new attitude and the motivation to act on all those ideas that bounce around my brain (April Fool!) but I am committing to changing certain behaviors for the next 30 days in the hope that my new habits will stick and the old habits will be gone. Most of the actual habits are pretty mundane, but I feel like they seem to cause 99% of my self-defeating behavior. So here goes … I will add new items to my list throughout the 30 days, but the core items will stay the same.

This is partly inspired by reading The Happiness Project and partly just the nagging realization that it really is the little things that are dragging me down. When my kids were really little, I always felt like caring for them took every second of my time and every speck of my energy. Now that they are older, I find that I am still not doing the things I thought they were keeping me from when they were small. I have more time, and presumably more energy, I am still bogged down by my own procrastination. But I have to start somewhere, and I am starting here.

30 DAY PLAN

I will do each of these things daily for the month of April

My house:

·      15 min pickup a day

·      1 minute rule

These “rules” come directly from the Happiness Project. I have two adults, three kids, one dog, one cat, and three fish living in my house and most of the time it is a horrific mess around here. Most of the mess is the daily clutter of kids (homework,  sports equipment, papers, books, shoes, snacks and more snacks, etc…) The 15 minute pickup is simply: set a timer for 15 minutes and pick up (and put away) everything you can. Sometimes it will be just me, sometimes the whole family, but it must happen every day. The visible clutter in my house is a huge source of stress for me, and hopefully this daily habit will help bring it under control.

The one minute rule is: if a task takes less that one minute to accomplish, it must happen RIGHT AWAY. Put your shoes away, hang up my coat, put a plate in the dishwasher, throw away junk mail NOW. Don’t let the little things wait.

Health/Fitness

I do not have a serious weight problem, but like most women my age, my metabolism seems to be turning on me, and I weigh more than would like to. Truthfully, I could say that at just about any time in my life, but now I am eating less than ever and the numbers on the scale seem to slowly creep up.

Stay off the scale:

Every morning, I weigh myself before I get in the shower and every morning it ruins my mood. I think that in my stupidly optimistic way, today I will magically be 10lbs lighter, and when I’m the same as I was the day before, it annoys me. No more.

Eating habits:

I love, love, love food and I love to cook, so this is kind of a big issue for me. I spend waaaayyyy too much time thinking about food. I think about what I want to cook, what I want to eat, what I want to shop for so I can make certain dishes. I know my obsession with food isn’t going to change, so I need to direct it toward healthier foods. I eat pretty healthy most of the time, but I really want to focus on giving up sweets and refined carbs, so for the next 30 days, no refined sugar or flour (with 2 exceptions—my daughter’s birthday, and Easter.) So no more cookies after lunch, no more Nutella right out of the jar … you get the idea.

Exercise:

I am a total slacker when it comes to exercise. When I do it, I feel great, when I don’t do it, I wish I had, but I have a hard time working up the motivation and/or the discipline to do it regularly. My husband started running last summer and he absolutely loves it. He has lost weight and is in the best shape of his life. I love the idea of just putting on running shoes and running out the door, but I have never been able to do it. I like yoga. I hate to run. I know I need to do it. Of course, instead of actually running, I do all kinds of research about how to start running rather than just putting my shoes on and going. No more. I will just do it. For the next 30 days I will take at least a 30 min walk (with some running) working toward a 30 minute run a day and/or take a yoga class. Every day. Really.

Work:

I am a freelance graphic designer, which means I have to constantly try to find more work. Over the last few years, thanks to the “economic downturn” work has been very hard to find. When my kids were really small, and I had no time or creative energy of any kind, I had to turn down a lot of jobs. Since then, a lot of my contacts have moved on to other things and most of the design work I have been doing has been pro bono for various nonprofit causes, or small projects for friends. I need to get my butt in gear and start finding more work.

I will:

·      Update my Facebook business page.

·      Check job listings in Linkdin groups, Craigslist, Elance etc … and try to send my portfolio to at least one new contact each day.

Last but not least … blog every day

I promise that this blog will not be boring updates of how my 30 day plan is going, but as part of that plan, I will be blogging every day. About a year ago, I was asked to be part of a “mom’s council” and write an online parenting column. I haven’t done any real writing since college, so it has been both challenging and fun to get back into. I have had a lot of positive feedback and I have been talking about starting a blog for a long time, so here I go. I have lots of opinions about lots of things, so I’m sure I will find plenty to talk about.  Hopefully you will want to read it.