Today's Thought from Hazelden: October 27th

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

It's easy to look at all the tasks and unsolved problems and feel so pressured that we get paralyzed and don't get anything done. It takes discipline to gather in our scattered forces and focus on one thing, one day, one step, and sometimes one hour – even when taking only that one step can seem so trivial in the face of all that looms.

Inventory Focus:
Are you creating unnecessary fear and drama by taking on more than you handle? Are you willing to trade in the I'm-out-of-control-and-overwhelmed feeling for a sense of manageability? Do you have any history with deliberately living life one day or one step at a time? How did that work?

Plans, goals, and dreams are good, but the only way to get there is one day at a time.

You are reading from the book:

52 Weeks of Conscious Contact by Melody Beattie

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Creating unnecessary fear & drama............are we not professionals at doing just that? Then, of course, we must run to the kitchen to EAT as a way to calm down from the drama that we have CREATED.  Many of live as reactionaries...........victims of whatever is going on at the moment, reacting TO the situation instead of accepting it as it. We react to an event, assign blame, pass judgment, cluck our tongues, and eat.  We have all the answers to someone else's problems, we think, yet we can't manage 5 minutes of our OWN lives. 

We insist on being perfectionists. "If I can't do it PERFECTLY, why bother?" That's known as an excuse............we set ourselves up for failure before we even BEGIN by forcing something to be done 'perfectly.'  We may live in a cluttered mess of a house, because we're too overwhelmed with the hoard to even know where to begin.

Many of us thrive in the I'm-out-of-control-and-overwhelmed mentality. We've created the drama and now we're too overwhelmed to tackle what lies ahead. A vicious cycle.

Pick ONE thing to do today, and devote a certain amount of time to it, say 1/2 an hour or an hour.  Or even 15 minutes, if that's all you feel capable of committing to.  For X amount of time, devote yourself 100% to the task at hand, and then STOP.  Repeat the action tomorrow.  Eventually, the job will be completed, because you've devised a PLAN to tackle it.  Furthermore, you will build your self-esteem that way, by DOING what you SAY you're GOING to do.  Good actions create good thoughts.

When I began to exercise, I did so for 2 minutes. I'd set the timer on the microwave, and when it went off, I was done with exercise for the day.  I felt accomplished........like I was being pro-active in taking my life back, and I made great progress with that plan.  I now work out at Ballys with a personal trainer 2x a week, because I'm in decent enough shape to do so.

It all BEGAN with a commitment to take that first baby step. 

I'm de-cluttering my basement exactly the same way. By devoting X amount of time to it every weekend, and that's it. 

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. If you force yourself to eat it all at once, you will choke to death. 

Take life one day at a time, one project at a time, one moment at a time. Don't set yourself up to fail by overwhelming yourself with unrealistic goals. You CAN do this, you just need a PLAN.

Fail to plan & plan to fail.

For today, I will live the next 24 hours to the best of my ability, without projecting the future or lamenting the past.