Are you one of those people who just cannot relax. Doing, doing, doing??? If you are not, YOU, my friend are one of the lucky ones. I have a to-do list. Yes, I am a list maker. I print it out each evening for the next day. It is pretty special too!
There are little boxes on the left side with a task after each of them. I try to get to each of these tasks during the day. There are more boxes at the bottom for tasks that I need to do at a later date or tasks that take more than a day to complete. Now that is pretty normal for a to-do list but…there are also 3 pictures duplicated with a line next to each. 2 Frogs, 2 ships and 2 phones.
I must do 2 Frogs each day. If you never read the book, Eat that Frog, you are missing out. The general idea is that you have to eat a really icky, gross, huge frog today. What do you do? Well, most people wait, and wait and worry and worry and get all worked up until the end of the day when they KNOW they MUST eat the frog. Then they hold their breath and eat it. The idea is to eat the frog first thing in the morning so you don’t worry and wait and get all worked up. Just do it as Nike suggests. So I put 2 things that I must do next to the frogs and I (try to) do these things first. Next, the ships – these stand for relationships. I write 2 people’s names in the spaces. I must call, email, talk to or send a note to these people today. I try to find people who need my help, support or fun, or someone who’s help I need. Usually, it is who needs my help – I am not that good at asking for help (see last blog post). Finally, telephones…these are people I MUST call today.
Why do I describe this list? Because last Friday I could not, would not (with a fox or a box) get myself to do anything on this list. I had a very productive week zipping through my to-do lists and I felt that I had done most things and was not thrilled at the last of the list…So, I did what most people do… I procrastinated. I did some laundry. I cleaned the kitchen (even though it was pretty clean already). I folded clothes. I dusted. Just kidding. I hate to dust! I folded towels…Then, I got bored.
I went back to my to-do list and decided that I would do one thing. Just one thing today. I would relax about all of the things that I thought I needed to do and just do the one thing that would get me closest to my goal. I would relax and not worry about the rest of the list. As Sheri Kaye Hoff, my wonderful coach, has said, “Relax into Inspired Action”. I was not sure what that really meant until I stopped thinking about what I thought I needed to do and did one thing that brought me closer to my goal. After I finished my task, I wrote about my new insight in my journal. As I was writing, the phone rang. It was a client offering me a job!!!
The moral of this story? Have a to-do list or not. But, don’t get too hung up on what you think you are supposed to be doing. Get clear on the one thing that you need to do – then DO IT! And do it happily, in a relaxed way and good things will happen! Sure, I may not always get a client calling me for a job when I relax, but in the future I will try not to be so tied to my to-do list or any of my lists. They are great most of the time but there are times when they can be set aside for relaxed action. Try to determine the ONE most important thing that will bring you closest to your goal – and relax while you do it.
