Living Without Chaos

It’s January 10th, 2012. My middle grandson is 17 today. Over at my personal blog, I talk about being 17. It’s one thing to see your own life progressing. It’s another thing to see the progression through another person.

As young as I feel, I am aware that I could easily be a great-grandmother. My oldest grandson is approaching 22. I was already a mother of two and divorced by that age.

But I digress.

Last year I took an amazing 10-month journey into change and it taught me a lot of things. So this year, all energized I started off with a great plan to be organized. And before the first week was ended, I realized that my to-do list is still too long. And all too often (every day!) I was carrying tasks over to the next day.

This was the value of coming up with a new type of list where I could see everything at a glance.

The important thing is that I did not throw up my hands and say oh well, this is my life. Over the weekend, I just revamped my list so that I only put on it what I can finish in a day. Since I make my living writing, this helps a lot. It gives me a more realistic view of how much I really can earn in a day.

Before, I set the daily income and listed jobs that met that limit. It was becoming more and more difficult to meet that daily income goal because I write quality stuff and cannot bat out an article in an hour and still maintain the quality. This means taking action about the fee I charge and the type of writing I do.

Being mindful and in the moment is a habit that I am still struggling to learn. I have managed to be mindful about what I eat and drink and have lost 30 pounds and a lot of high blood pressure points. I have managed to be mindful about balance in my life and get out with friends more often.

I am also mindful about things and people that agitate me and instead of spending hours and days growling about these things to all the wrong people, I deal with issues directly. It has cost me a couple of acquaintances but it has also made me more friends. As an example, I have an issue with alcoholism — not my personal problem with alcohol. I can take a drink or leave it.

My problem is talking to drunks. They are hard to understand through their slurring words and they are tedious to the point of boring and then they forget the entire conversation when it is convenient to them. I’m not suggesting this attitude to anyone else. The problem is mine. They bore me and waste my time.

This step alone has given me at least 8 hours a week. But it was a scary step to take. The interesting thing is, once I stopped sitting and listening to their “wisdom”, they never even noticed. I was replaced in minutes with the next person who would listen the 100th rendition of Beth’s drunken diatribe about how rotten her husband is to her and her endless plans to leave him.

Take a look at your annoyances and consider ways that you can make small changes. Among the considerations are the possibility that you might need to change yourself.