Getting Started: Big Bang or Baby Steps?…

I am overwhelmed with stuff. Stuff on my desk, stuff on lots of flat surfaces at home, a pile-up of email in the inbox, bills, receipts, … Stuff, clutter everywhere. In my head as well: things to do, committments I……

[…] Looking back at our fresh starts & modest changes: Throughout this month, a wonderful quote from Walden has been turning over in my head: […]

I didn’t make resolutions, but I did implement some small, modest changes:

1. Dress Better. Wear khakis more often than jeans, and wear that nice sweater that I never wore much because it was “too nice.” Dress better at home… my wife deserves to see me looking good. Dress better even when I am alone. Why? Because it makes me feel better.

2. Put things away. When walking in the door at the end of the day, hang the coat up and put the laptop bag in the office rather than dumping everything on the nearest horizontal surface. It takes an extra 30 seconds, and the house looks better for it.

3. Do it now. Do those stupid little things that take barely more time to do than to add to my To Do list. Just do them and move on.

I have to stay conscious of all these things, but they are starting to take hold. There’s no trick I use, other than just being aware. I still start to shrug off the laptop when I cross the threshold. NO, go put it away you slob!

One of the minor resolutions I made after the new year pertains to how I update my own site.

Because I still only have a dial up connection in my apartment and can’t get a wireless signal to save my life, I used to fret every time I had something to post to my blog. After the new year, I began keeping a simple text file on my desktop with the name “Reviews to be Posted” as well as a folder with picture files I may want to use on the site (organized in order that they will be posted). Now, instead of struggling with the decaying telephonics in my apartment every time I have something to review, I simply edit the txt file. When I am in a place where I can skitch a wireless connection (or in the rare event that I get a stable dial up connection), I simply cut/paste the entries. All of this sure beats running down the street to the coffee shop every time I want to update the site.

I’ve learned to go with the flow of every day life and use the advantages of technology when I can instead of madly seeking them out. This saves me time, but also saves me a few bucks every month by not paying for a high speed internet connection in the apartment where I only spend a few conscious hours out of every day.

I have so many friends who have needlessly become dependent on their always-on internet connection. They freak out when something isn’t right. I’ve learned to take it easy and tackle the content as it comes and the publishing as it is convenient. Instead of waiting until an available connection is near to write my blog posts, I oil the squeaky door when it makes a sound and walk through it only when I need to.

I’ve started the new year with a new habit per week in my planned move towards more healthy living. I’m blogging my efforts if you’re interested. It’s not been 100% successful yet, but the beauty of the small step approach is you don’t get overwhelmed, and it’s easy to make small tweaks, rather than give up altogether.

I have three goals for this year: Be Healthy, Be Greek & Be a Writer. Each Monday I write down (in my moleskine weekly planner) a small, meaningful goal for each one. I highlight each one as they’re completed during the week.

These goals are small, but they’re challenging. They get me moving and the fact that I’m writing them down shows me that I’m actually making progress.

I’ve never kept track of my goals this way, and it never seemed like I was accomplishing much - I couldn’t see any results or remember what I’ve done. Now I can clearly see that I’ve been moving in the right direction.

With regards to the Fresh Starts & Modest Changes: I’ve cleaned out my email box of 5 years worth of crap - I didn’t use the “DMZ” folder. I used the Trash. It’s so freeing to check my inbox & see only the messages I’ve received that day. We’ve also cancelled our Satellite subscription. TV became the biggest time-waster & contributed nothing to our lives. Netflix replaced it & now we have control.

My modest change, something I’ve been trying to be consistent in doing every day, is that every time I notice something has gotten too big for me to keep a hold on, for better or for worse, I ditch all of it. Well, I keep the things that are presently in my mind. For instance, a folder full of email. I don’t get much email, I max out at about 20 per day, but I like to just leave it wallowing in my inbox. So what I’ll do is filter out every email from someone on my contact list, go through them quick, shooting off replies, and then just dump the rest. Delete them like they didn’t exist. It’d be nice if gmail had a “bounce” button, so people would know that I never read their email, but whatever.

Perhaps not the most elegant way of dealing with overload, but it helps me relieve stress. I was reading 6 different books, 1 for school, 1 for a book club I’m in and 4 for personal pleasure. Yesterday I said “this is too many books” and I picked my favorite, one that I was reading for personal pleasure, alerted the book club that I wouldn’t be doing a review this month, bookmarked the spark notes for my AP lit book, and now I’m down to one great novel that I can devote more time to completing by, oh, mid february, and still get that one important thing finished.

2005 was a year of changes both modest and personally staggering (2004 more so, at least we’re moving in the right direction). As New Year’s wound around, I made time to reflect and found that my goals haven’t really changed much. Still working on getting at least 3 bouts of exercise each week; added the goal of eating 3 big green salads. Still reading at least 1 book for fun each month, and still trying to test 3 new recipes each month. Not much to declutter now, so I’m trying to meditate a couple of times a week, thanks to Merlin’s advocacy.

Other modest changes that aren’t really tied to concrete goals: Being choosier about how I spend my time. My mantra in 2006 is “don’t force it”. I believe the steady application of these two principles will bring the bigger challenges down to their level.

I made only one resolution—to make a serious effort to change my eating and exercise habits, because I wasn’t happy with the toll my choices were taking on my body.

So far, so good. My husband and I have both made significant changes in what, how, and when we eat, and I’ve been exercising six days a week. I’m feeling better already, and so is he. I even managed to survive the search champs bacchanalia without overindulging in sweets and other refined carbs.

I’m still not entirely sure what pushed us to the point where we were ready to oil that hinge, but it seems to have happened, and I’m grateful for it.

I’ve enjoyed the podcasts and reflected on my commute tonight on my January. After selling my design business last year, I embarked upon a year of self-awareness. I resolved to go to work only when I needed to but it didn’t quite work out even in a loose permanent role. I recently switched from perm to that of digital strategy/people consultant, which commenced in November. At the turn of the year I resolved to do three things: go to work when I need to, otherwise do it at home or elsewhere that suited my flow. I also resolved to learn guitar - my dad’s teaching me and I’m making progress, playing along to my own Garageband backing tracks. Today I also went to a yoga class before work. Great. Little things, but potentially life-changing.