It’s a new year and I’m thinking what’s in store for me in 2020? I’ve always made resolutions. I start out strong in January and fall off by February. So why bother?
I realize I’ve been feeling a bit adrift. Nothing bad but I don’t feel like I am really accomplishing anything that I’m excited about. A friend of mine helped me see that and encouraged me to take a good look at how my life is now and think about how I want it to be. He also suggested the book, “What to Say When You Talk to Yourself” by Shad Helmstetter. That was nine months ago.
I do not like self help books. When he mentioned it, I wrote it down and forgot about it immediately because…you know…I don’t like self help books! But, I was still feeling in limbo when we met up in October and he mentioned it again. I was finally ready to give it a try.
So what did I learn?
That I need to treat myself better. Instead of beating myself up over the things I think I can not do, I need to be a champion of the things I’m able to do. This book makes sense. Positive self talk is the key to changing a behaviour and accomplishing a goal. For me, I’ve always had trouble being organized. I put things away but for the things I don’t know where to put, I make piles and they grow. I don’t like the pile but I watch it grown. Then I say, I’m going to organize this. I start again but I’m distracted by other things and I think I’ll never get through this so what’s the point? But after reading this book, he gave me the tools to turn things around in my mind. Instead of saying I’m messy, I now say to myself, “I am organized. Everything has it’s place so I can find it when I need it.”
And you know what? After reading this book, It took me four weeks to accomplish this. Everyday, I repeated this while purging and putting things in it’s place. For me this was effort. But then I wished I had done this years ago. It wasn’t so hard. Kudos for those of you, who have never had this problem. But for me, I would start and not finish. So I’m happy, that I was able to accomplish this one thing that is already reaping benefits for me. I am now on to other goals like reading more for pleasure. A very old resolution, but it’s happening!
So what am I reading next? Little Fires Everywhere by Christine Ng. Why don’t you join me to talk about the book over brunch?
