Ask me how I am doing with my 30 minutes of extra effort….

Terrible.  I get an F-. 

Failing is a wonderful thing.  It makes us do one of two things.  We either quit, or we learn.  Quitting is good if we are not giving up.  Learning is good, for it is necessary to get better.

So I’m not quitting… How could I?  Prayer, Exercise, Practice?  All essential to the current mission.  So what did you learn Dorothy? (There’s no place like Home, there’s no place like  …*)

The answer dawned on me as I struggled with the question, “Why was it so easy to do this stuff 15 years ago, but feels impossible now?”  Many people jump to the easy answer….. “It’s because you’re older!”  I wasn’t buying it.  Not one bit.  Something is different and I was determined to sort it out.  I know that most efforts, resolutions and new courses in life require two main ingredients; A strong desire and persistence.

The thing many people would add to that is will power.  OK, when was the last time you gave something up and rationalized it right back into your life?  I don’t care if it was smoking, drinking, weight loss, or a bad boyfriend, at some point you caved in and there you were, right back to or even worse than when you started because when your will power let go, the floodgates of want came with it!

So what is the missing piece?  Environment.  If the environment you have built, prepared, or ignored does not lend itself to supporting the activity, inconvenience will kill any persistence you may have!  Why is it so easy to watch TV, but not to pack your lunch everyday?  Well you set up the couch or recliner to aim at the TV and put a remote control right in front of you to make viewing not only easy, but enjoyable!  We don’t even really have commercial breaks to let us get up to go to the bathroom or throw in a load of laundry.  We are programmed and have built the environment to not only easily do, but enjoy watching TV.

After 3 faithful days of praying and playing guitar, and 3 days of still not knowing which exercise I could seriously add for 10 minutes a day, I watched my plan fade.  I couldn’t leave my guitar in the Living room, and I couldn’t find an ideal time to pray in a place where I have privacy.

The space I had built for music and alone time and planning was over-run with clutter.  Sure I use most of that stuff, don’t I?  Nope, just years of piles and no time to organize, or even the resolve to throw/give away or recycle stuff I will never use or read!

So, my action plan, which started over Christmas break was the rapid cleaning of my office space/sound room and closet of my studio.  Suddenly with the exit of clutter and the knowledge that I can find things faster, comes the idea that I can re-invent the environments I used to have, that allowed me to faithfully do the daily habits and rituals that are necessary to being healthy, productive, and on track as I continue refining my focus.  True quadrant 2 activities!  Now I’m getting on the right track!

Stay tuned, Another blog coming on clutter and our addiction to acquiring and keeping STUFF!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Daily Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.