November 19th, 2008 | by Jack Reichert

Are you ever so overwhelmed with life that everything becomes a mess?

I find that once I get my house in order, I get a better clarity on life as well. Start with your living space before you worry about your job; just make sure you are getting by. You’ll see, very quickly, improvement there as well.

I would suggest that you start with one, very small step.

Find something that needs to be done, but doesn’t overwhelm you, like removing the garbage from the kitchen table AND NOTHING ELSE. Do it now.

Doesn’t that feel a little better? Now reward yourself! You deserve it! You just took the first step to jump-starting your success.

Now continue the rest of your day as normal but make sure to keep that table clear from garbage. If you need to put something down, don’t leave the kitchen before you take the garbage off.

Next morning, before work, add one more thing. Wash the dirty cups in the sink, no more. That evening add one more thing. Make sure that each next step is doable. Don’t overwhelm yourself.

This is the secret. You don’t have to clean everything up at once. Just make sure you are keeping what you have done clean. Take small steps and before you know it you’ll see major changes in your life. As you see that success it will give you confidence to do even more. Just make sure that each step is clear. This will spill over (pun intended) into other areas of your life.

People tend to over estimate what they can do in a day and under estimate what you can do over time. There is good reason why the Aesop’s Tortoise and Hare parable resonates so powerfully with us.

Slow and steady and you can win back your life!

Image credit: Ron J. Añejo

Tags: cleanliness, mental health, organization, stress, success

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Build Yourself. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.