Each night before I go to sleep I make a list for the next day.
The next morning, still bleary and wiping the sleep from out of my eyes, I cross off “WAKE” from the top of my list. Wow! Boy does it feel good to already have something crossed off my list. I’m already killing it! I think to myself as I leave for the gym.
When I return I can cross off, “WORKOUT” and “SHOWER”.
Need to hydrate! I’ll put that on my list. Today I only have 60 more ounces of water to drink! I can color in another glass in my journal right after this sip. And whew. How many more steps on this Fit Bit? Me thinks it’s time for a little walk around the block!
I am barely speaking tongue in cheek for I truly am a master and slave to my lists. These lists give my life order and routine. In small steps, I build a full life and day of good habits and a focused schedule. Without these lists, I would flounder.
Years ago, when I needed these lists more than I do now, a man who knew of my lists said I needed to ease off on them. He had a few drinks in him which made him even more confident than usual and he thought he knew me or at least someone like me. What he didn’t know was I was more like him than he liked to admit. At the time, I needed my lists to keep me alive. He used self-medication in various forms to do the same.
Lists were the first step I learned in therapy to take a day, a task, my anxiety and the overwhelming feeling that I could not breathe into bit size chunks. I learned to break up every task, into even smaller tasks, doing what I could at first, until I realized I was nearly finished with the big task and I could do it! It brought me more confidence and showed me I COULD DO IT.
If only I would have listened and learned this years before when I watched the 1991 Bill Murray classic What About Bob? Baby steps. It was a great punch line in the film but it had some real practical application.
I don’t have the overwhelming anxiety anymore but my lists still focus me. At the end of the day or week or month or year, I can look back at all I have crossed off and see that I have accomplished what I set out to do. Yes, wake up (which isn’t as small as it sounds) and got my exercise in (totally related to everything else) but also wrote a book, stayed connected to my community, and stayed focused in my faith.
It doesn’t work for everyone. But for me, it helps to have each step to cross off for a life of intentionality.
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I had the pleasure of being on TWO podcasts this week! Check out the links on my website
https://www.shemaiahgonzalez.com/
There is also a tab for my Upcoming Zoom Workshop on Poetry of Faith and Doubt and a few of my most recently publications.
I am an Amazon Affiliate, so if you purchase items from Amazon on my links, you help me pay for the website.
Also, I hit 73% finished of Undaunted Joy THE BOOK manuscript this weekend (see how I use these lists?)
Happy to celebrate with you.
From a list addict. It works-- praise God! Listless... yikes!
I love this! I totally get the list! I’m a list person as well and feel so organized and in control with the check list! ✔️Check! “Finished another chapter in my book!”✔️ “Got the bills paid!”✔️ “Lifted heavy today!” Not as detailed as yours but certainly reduced anxiety and feelings of being a slacker at times!☺️ Joy can certainly be found in the small things💞