It’s a brand-spankin’, fresh new year. It’s unmarred by mistakes, bad choices, regrets or unintended consequences. YOU have the power to choose for this year to be different from last year. YOU can choose to take baby steps toward your goals. Want to be more organized? Come up with one small step you could take toward organization. Commit to carrying out your baby step everyday until that baby step becomes a habit. Then add another baby step that compliments the first one. Carry that second one out along with your first baby step until it becomes as much of a habit as your first one did. Keep adding baby steps until you have reached your goal. THAT is how you become more organized!
Here are some examples of baby steps to try:
1. End Goal: Sort mail into a mail sorter each day. First baby step: When you get your mail, place all of the bills on top of the pile. Second baby step: Place all of the bills on top of the pile AND toss the junk mail into the recycling bin. Subsequent baby steps: All of the first baby steps, plus sort your mail into a few more categories like Things to Read and Things to Respond To. Eventually, get file folders and an incline file sorter and place your mail into the appropriately labeled file folder each day.
2. End Goal: Eliminate clothes pile from the bedroom floor. First baby step: When you get undressed at night, put all of your dirty clothes in a hamper in your room. Second baby step: Put all of your dirty clothes in your hamper AND fold up one thing neatly that needs to go back into the closet. Subsequent steps: The first and second baby steps, plus place one folded thing back in the closet or up on a hanger as needed. Eventually, get to the point where you are putting your dirty clothes in the hamper and putting all of your clean things into drawers or on hangers in the closet each day.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit. — Aristotle
Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still. — Chinese Proverb
