SISTER WISDOM : build a better life

Principle: Your behavior means more than your background.

This is good news for people with less-than-stellar backgrounds and bad news for people with a perfect past.
Oh wait. I've never met anyone with a perfect past. Have you? I guess that makes it good news for all of us.
True, there are prejudices to overcome, assumptions to dispel, and first impressions that aren't accurate. You have to deal with what other people expect from you because of what they know (or assume) about your background. You still have to reckon with the emotional burdens and false ideas that you carry from your past. But you aren't locked in there.

What you do, day after day, carries more weight than where you've been. People may expect one thing of you, but if they consistently see something different, soon that is what they will expect instead. That can be good or bad: what's good is that it depends on you. It's in your hands, your choices, your life. Who you are and who you become isn't a matter of determinism, but of your will.

Challenge Update

I'm doing better at getting up early: more early mornings than late ones in the last ten days, though I'm still not quite hitting my target. But I'm getting closer, and the more often I get up early the more I enjoy the time I have in that quietness and the more I want to get up (even earlier) the next day. I'm building strength here...

and with exercising, too.

The best idea I've had for exercising isn't mine. My neighbor asked if I wanted to start walking in the park with her. We live right across the street from the city park, which has a 1/2 mile paved walking loop. I feel a bit hamster-esque, yes, but it's easy to keep track of how far you've gone and easy to push a stroller. Last week I walked three times by myself. I went 2 miles the first two days and 3 miles the last day. This week my neighbor and I have walked together; we went 5 miles on Monday and 4 miles yesterday. My legs are so sore, but I feel so much better and more energetic overall. Having someone to exercise with makes a huge difference. If you struggle to fit it into your life consistently, see if you can't find a buddy.

House/Work

I'm working on getting some routines in place for the general (dull) repetitive (dull) house cleaning that must be done on a regular (dull) basis. (Do you get that I find it kind of, um, dull?) Routines are perfect for dull duties: you set up a routine, you pay close attention the first few times you follow it so that you don't leave anything out (that's important), and then you can go on auto-pilot while you're employing it the rest of the time. You can think about your next great writing project or hair style, talk to your kids, call your best friend, listen to a podcast, sing with the radio. Whatever. Makes the dull stuff much better.

Here are some house routine articles and tips I've come across:

Great article at Minti: Routine for Grown Ups - Easy House Cleaning Tips.

The Queen of Kaos (whose posts and podcasts I enjoy) has good advice for Creating a Daily Routine.

AOL Home offers some ideas to develop A Cleaning Routine for Busy Women.

Old-Fashioned Homemaking also tells us how to Create a Cleaning Routine.

And Zen Habits offers a somewhat broader article on how to Handle Chores, House Cleaning, and Errands with Simple Systems.

Hope you find those helpful!

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action. Napoleon Hill

The quote above is the antidote to the plague of perfectionism that keeps so many of us in a place of continual dissatisfaction and failure to reach our goals. We are waiting until we are ready, until the moment is right, until everything is in place, until Situation A is resolved and Situation B is over and Situation C is no longer demanding our time.

Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favourable do nothing. William Feather

Waiting, waiting, waiting. Waiting until we feel ready. Waiting for energy. Waiting for motivation. Waiting for certain conditions. We call it prudence, or thoughtfulness, or planning, or timing. The Bible calls it being a sluggard.

The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold... Prov. 20:4

The sluggard always has a reason why now is not the right time. The sluggard never has enough energy to get himself moving. He doesn't feel good. He is depressed. He has many ideas but no movement. He has grand intentions but never takes action. He cannot produce the force necessary to get him out of the rut he lives in and onto the road he envisions.

As the door turneth upon his hinges, so [doth] the slothful upon his bed. Prov. 26:14

We call it perfectionism; the Bible calls it being slothful and warns us of the consequences:

The soul of the sluggard desireth, and [hath] nothing... Prov. 13:4

We think of lazy people as those with no ambition, no dreams, no ideas, no plans. Not true. Lazy, or slothful, or sluggish, simply means, respectively, to be disinclined to action, to be inactive, or to be habitually inactive and slow. One who is sluggish has no power to move himself.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.
Wayne Dyer

The pull of perfectionism is the pull to stay still. Motivation lies in taking action: one step leads to another. Progress creates more progress. You must learn to take action even when you don't feel like it. You create the energy you need by acting as if you have it before you feel it.

Faith follows facts, and feelings follow faith. Too often we get that process all in reverse. We wait for the feelings; then we start to believe; then we assume that, since we feel it, and believe it, it must be true after all. But what if you stop "feeling it"? Suddenly your faith is shaky because the foundation - those ever-changing feelings - is shaky. Feelings change. Faith crumbles. You are back at the beginning. It must not be true after all. "I guess I wasn't supposed to start that business." "I guess I'm not really a writer." "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

Get your facts first. Are you, or aren't you? Do you want it, or don't you? Is it worth it, or isn't it? Can you do it, or not? Is it a real desire? Have you made it a real goal, whatever it is? Whether it is a career change, a lifestyle change, a health issue, a new habit to form or an old habit to break, a relationship to evaluate, or a personal goal to achieve, you must take the time to find out what is true. Weigh the pros and cons. Discuss the matter with wise people you trust. Read about the subject. Pray about it. Determine what the goal is and how you best to get there; determine that you should and will get there.

Build your faith next. Be firmly convinced in your mind that the object you mean to pursue is worth pursuing, then just as firmly reject any suggestions to the contrary. Do not allow negativism, other's opinions, and temporary obstacles to create doubt of what you know to be true. Begin taking action. "Faith without works is dead" is not trite religious phraseology. Take one step and then another. Persist.

The feelings will follow. You may not feel like a successful writer; feelings are irrelevant. If, after thought and deliberation, you determined that you should and will be a successful writer; if you begin taking action consistently toward that goal; if you do not allow discouragement and daily life to sway you, soon you will begin to experience the feelings that you expect.

Success seems to be connected to action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit. - Conrad Hilton

Keep moving forward. Do not allow the pull of sluggishness to keep you down. The warnings are there if you do - you will not see your desire accomplished. The promises are there if you refuse to give in:

...The soul of the diligent shall be made prosperous. Prov. 13:4

Motivational quotations from Goal Setting Guide.

Scripture quotations from Blue Letter Bible.

Image courtesy of thegoldguys.blogspot.com/ or www.lumaxart.com/.