How about a little motivation this Monday? It's never hard to throw the work you've started on the back burner to finish some "quick" tasks... but those quick tasks multiply. Once they multiply, your burner begins to boil until you have overcooked what's been waiting so patiently for attention.
"If you can't stop thinking about it. Don't stop working for it!"
It can really be that simple if you put your mind to it. What works for me may not work for you but I've been wanting to share my ongoing struggle and recent success.
I'm a craft lover. I love the relaxing sensation it puts my body in but can honestly say I haven't "crafted" in almost 5 years. Not regularly anyways. And of course, I love Young Living. I've began using Young Living within my crafts; homemade products, recipes, and around-the-house. I call them crafts, others might call them simply DIY projects. To each their own!
Slowly but surely I've been incorporating more and more of my actual crafting, painting, sewing, etc. into my life again. It has gotten easier and easier now that we own our home and can do what we please when we please. The puppy is growing up fast and becoming more and more independent, also freeing up some time for me to do "me stuff". But the real secret is even simpler. GOALS. I've been setting goals for myself (and my husband)! They are more for me than him because I like to encourage him to set his own, but some of mine need his assistance, so they become his too.
Here are a few tips I use that help me keep on track. Make short term and long term goals. Short term can be anything from a daily goal to a monthly goal. Long term goals are similar and can overlap from monthly to yearly goals. Even 5, 10 or 15 year goals. Below are some of my goals that help keep my vision on track.
Short Term:
Sunday: mow the lawn. prepare garden for transplanting, misc. laundry, grill burgers
Monday: finish the dishes, wash blankets, wash towels, change bedding, trim the lawn, grill ribs, walk Reggie
Tuesday: bean bag league 6:30, vacuum bedrooms, eat at league?
Wednesday: wash bedding, clean bathroom, crockpot chicken, walk Reggie
Thursday: errands, tacos
Friday: (mom coming to town), shopping, walk Reggie
Saturday: attend baby shower, in-laws in town ?
Sunday: help move my sister out of her old house to new house (all day event)
Overflow: sort totes in basement (keep, rummage sale), make goats milk soap, make powder laundry detergent, make toilet fizzes, make bathroom tile cleaner, dig platform for shed, build platform for shed, build shed, touch-up bathroom paint
*I tend to make my short term goals on a daily basis. I like to know what I need to get done each night. I move things around as I need to but it makes it easy for me to get done what needs done. I always have an overflow list of things I need done also, just fill in whenever I have down time. These goals I want done within a few days and even a few weeks but not always immediately.
Long Term:
Purchase paint for entry way (have paint colors chosen)
Paint entry way
Purchase paint for kitchen (have paint colors chosen)
Paint kitchen
Sand cabinet doors & drawers
Paint cabinet doors & drawers
Pick paint color(s) for desk (in basement) ideas- blue/gray or blue/black
Re-finish desk in basement
*My long terms goals help me keep a vision for what I want done but doesn't put the timing on me. I have paint colors picked out and now it is finding the time to paint. I'm kind of holding off until a great paint sale comes because I know I don't have the time to paint right at this moment. But then again, I can make time if I have the paint on hand! We are refinishing our kitchen cabinets so those are another one of those projects that we have the colors picked out but not the immediate time or materials to sand them down, refinish and get in place. That's why they are long term goals for me.
All in all, "If you can't stop thinking about it, don't stop working for it." I think about the entry way every time I walk in the house. I'm not going to stop working towards finishing it! Same goes for the pile of dirty towels. They'll get done, I have them on my list and I will finish them. It's a matter of being organized. Grab a sticky note and make a small to-do list. You'll be amazed how much easier it is to get your prioritized tasks done!
