Big changes in life come from small, consistent actions. My day-to-day experience is that these two pack a powerful punch!

1. Schedule

(Not just work — but play, family, juicing, badminton, letter-writing, you name it!)

I just hung up from a call with one of my coaching clients. She was feeling kinda bad that some important things fell through the cracks.

One of the things I heard myself saying to her while on the call was this:

Scheduling is compassionate. It is easy and common to think that scheduling is punitive. That it is boxing us in like jail. But don't believe it. It is one of the kindest things we can do for ourselves.

Here's what scheduling does for me:

* Allows me to ensure that things I care about have a place in my life.

* Eliminates the herky-jerky, do-this-no-do-that conversation that can zap all of my energy and leave me paralyzed.

* Proves to me over and over again that I can keep commitments to myself and these commitments are every bit as important as those to other people.

 

2. If you don't feel like doing it, do it anyway.

I once heard someone say that on average, resistance usually lasts three to five minutes. After I heard that, I started setting a timer when I sat down to do something I had planned, but didn't feel like doing any more.

This is how it goes: set the timer for five minutes. Turn my attention to the file, paper, project, whatever. Just promise myself to stay present with it for five minutes even if I don't feel any energy at all. Just do it. Sit there. BE with the task, even if I don't lift a finger. You can guess what happens, can't you? 99.9% of the time, by the time the five minutes is up, I've found a starting place. I've gotten going. I'm on a roll. Resistence is gone. Poof. Try it.

(One of my other clients reminded me of this today when he told me he'd been practicing it consistently. "No fail, it works," he said. "I sit down feeling like I zero energy or enthusiasm for something. But if I allow myself just to be present, not get up, not think I have to feel any different, than inevitably I start to do one tiny thing or another and before I know it, I am totally engrossed.")

 

(Rinse and repeat.)

 

 

What's this got to do with celebration? These are two steps on the path to having a life I love. Otherwise, monkey mind gets to run the show. Agree? Disagree? Let me know! 🙂