My life tried to go haywire on me today. It really did. First off, my older daughter is supposed to be in her seat for her first class at 8:15, and she was jumping out of the truck and boogieing (as fast as someone who is lacking the ‘hurry-up gene’ can boogie) to her class at 8:14:30. It’s the closest we’ve ever cut it. This, of course, made me late dropping my younger one at her homeschool group, which isn’t a big deal but still made for stress.
Then I went grocery shopping. I had a conference call at 11:00 and at 10:25 I stepped into line behind the WRONG person. She had about 20 coupons (which is fine) but one of them, for 20% off some item, was being rejected by the cash register. So the clerk was scrolling through her receipt, looking for the item to enter it by hand. She spent over $300 so you can imagine how long this was taking. It turns out my meeting was cancelled because one of the other people was sick, but I didn’t know this because…
My cell-phone is dead. The screen is black. It rings, but I can’t answer it. I can’t call out. I’ve ordered another one, but I don’t have it yet. So when I came tearing in to my house at 10:58, there was a message waiting for me. All that stress for nothing!
In my past life, this would have derailed my whole day. But not today. Today I had my life-changing notebook. I had written three to-dos for the day (one down already because it was grocery shopping), so I just pulled it out and started working. Here I now sit, and my table is feng-shui-ed, my kitchen is clean, my professional blogs are written (three business blogs I write for clients), my action items are complete, dinner is started, and I feel POWERFUL. Seriously, I think I could do just about anything. Is this how other people feel all the time? Is this how people feel who accomplish stuff on a regular basis? Sheesh – I really can’t conceive of what took me so long to get moving.
I think about all I’m accomplishing, and how exhausting it should be. But it’s not. I don’t feel wiped-out, I don’t feel overwhelmed. I used to be kind of manic about my approach to housework. I’d let it go for too long, then race around like a lunatic cleaning up, until at last I collapsed. Now, I do three things each day (one of which is chosen because it moves me toward my goals). When they are finished, I stop. I’m not exhausted, so I have what it takes to do it all again tomorrow. I have created a system – and I feel empowered.
The Disorganized Perfectionist 