Welcome to another post in your 52 weeks of small changes. I hope each week that there will be at least one thing that will bring you that wee bit closer to where you want to be.
Some of these small steps assume that you have made a time budget or a money budget. It is not absolutely necessary to do so, but having one will help make new habits “stick” until they become life habits. Check back to these three posts if you’d like to make a time budget now. Check back to these three posts if you’d like to make a financial budget now.
Do as many of these weekly small steps as you would like. Once you take on an idea, the intent is for you to continue doing it through the year and beyond, but there are no “rules”. Start when you like, stop if you wish- just give the ideas a good try and hopefully they will make your life better.
- Physical Health
-Last week I talked about your enthusiasm waning for your exercise routine. In the past I mentioned changing up activities to keep things feeling fresh. Another strategy is to find yourself an “accountability partner” who can help keep you on track. Ideally this will be someone who joins you for your exercise (and calls you on your lame excuses), but this is not always possible. So, you can set a goal and use your fitness tracker (via an app) as a way of recording whether you follow through. If you are part of an online community, you can share with others and keep each other on track. Or you can hook in to friends’ apps and goals and have a little friendly competition to stay motivated. If you have the disposable income, you can even pay a trainer to keep tabs on you. - Mental/Emotional Health
– Accept that the world is not fair, and stop trying to make it so. And while you are at it, let go of the idea that you can even know what is fair. It might seem right now like someone else has a charmed life while you are struggling, but in the future they may face even tougher times than you ever did. Or, the hardship that you endured and overcame may end up making you a stronger and happier person than you would have been without it, so that you are the ultimate sweepstake winner in that life area. The fact is, we cannot really know what is fair because we are never able to have the full picture from every point of view and over time. Once you realize this and let go the wish to level every playing field you will be free to appreciate and enjoy the good things that do come into your life. - Financial Health
– Commit to one day a month as a “no spending” day. It isn’t likely to save you a bundle of money, but it is a way to make you mindful of the things you normally pay for without thinking. If you make a note of what you were going to impulsively buy, you will gain more insight into your patterns and thus will be more able to make conscious decisions about whether to change them. - Family/Relationships
– Turn family decisions into a fun activity instead of an argument. One way this can look is to have a rota for whose turn it is to choose the game on family game night. Another way might be to make a game of the decision itself. To choose a place for a family fun day, each person gets to write an idea on a ballot. Then you draw the winner out of a hat. Or perhaps it is just you and your partner and you can’t decide where to go for supper. You can play 5-3-1. Make a list of five choices you both agree are acceptable, then one person eliminates two of the choices. The second person then eliminates two more and you are left with your final choice. - Organization
– Get a mesh bag with suction cups for children’s bath toys, and only allow the number of toys into the bath that can fit into the bag. At the end of bath time, make it a game for your child to squeeze the water out of the toys and put them into the bag to hang on the wall and dry. This will free up the ledges around the tub and prevent the nasty black mold that can develop in and under bath toys that are left sodden around the bathtub.
A Therapist and Her Dog 