You know if you've got a job to do, and you don't much feel like doing it, you can't get motivated, and the job is not going to go away. Well my solution is divide it into smaller chunks and keep chipping away at it. I like the idea of only doing as much as I want to at any one time. When I get fed up I stop and do something else. I do that with housework, I hate window cleaning, so I do one window on one day and another one another day. Eventually they all get done. I chip away at them. In the garden I will tidy for two hours, mow the lawn, a bit of weeding or hedge trimming, potter about, then stop, don't want to do that any more, so move on. It's a good job I don't have anyone nagging me, ha ha.
You can apply the chipping away solution to almost anything you need to do, even with stuff you like doing. If you take on a big project that is going to take up a lot of time and energy, you can still get the desired result by chipping away at it. If it is very important that you finish the project, but it feels like you have a mountain to climb, break it up into smaller chunks. If you keep slogging on with something it is very easy to get sick of it and you are more likely to fail. It doesn't matter how long it takes you to get there, as long as you do get there. So have a break and go back to it.
Take weight control for example, I don't believe in short term faddy diets, what you need to do is think long term. I don't need to go on a diet, because I eat healthily most of the time. I keep chipping away at it. I know that I am in this for life, not next week or for a few months. Each day I make myself eat something which is good for me. I get on the cross trainer at regular intervals, I don't flog myself to death on it, I try and aim for ten minutes every hour. Keep chipping away at it to keep my body in some sort of order.
It's the same with a sewing or crafting project, 625 squares to hand sew on the quilt. Pick it up when I have a few minutes to spare, fit it in around other jobs that I am chipping away at.
If I go for a long walk, 150 miles to do sounds like a nightmare, but it isn't, it's only eight days. I keep chipping away at it, day by day. 18 to 20 miles in one day, break it up into two miles an hour, maybe three miles an hour, four hours twelve miles, it doesn't take long, it soon adds up.
Think about a job you are struggling with, put it down and go back to it. It will sort itself out eventually if you keep chipping away at it.
I don't have any debt, but it didn't come easy, I have worked hard to live within my means. I had to spend money on my first house, it needed a lot of jobs doing. It was an old terraced house, dry rot, wet rot, electrical rewire, new concrete floors in two rooms, it cost a fortune and I couldn't afford to get it all done at once. I kept chipping away at it, lived in a grim shell for a while, and saved up and got the jobs done when I could afford it. Similar in the second house. I borrowed three grand from a very good friend for the new windows and doors because the old wooden ones were in danger of falling out. It was a debt that I kept chipping away at. I trickled money into his bank account and paid it off. No lavish spending on going out at that time, it was work work work.
Talking of work. You have probably heard this before, but my answer to those who kept telling me I shouldn't be doing the job, that I was taking it off a man, and I should be at the kitchen sink, was to turn up at work each morning and get on with it. I kept chipping away at it. I broke it up into daily chunks, six days was a week, YAY, I've beat the bullies for another week, I've stuck it out and I'm still here. Then the weeks went into months, and years.
The more you do something the better you get at it. If a task is daunting take little steps. Do a bit at a time. If you are not in the mood, leave it and go back to it. If you really want to do something you will do it. If you don't, move on to something else. Wanting to do it is the key. Give yourself a fair chance, try your best, think where you want to be in the long term, and keep chipping away at it.
Toodle pip
No comments:
Post a Comment