First Dr. Success Challenge for 2013: Is there an area of your life you need to ‘clear a path’ to be able to move forward? What is keeping you from investing the time to remove whatever is holding you back and to take action? Challenge: Set a timer for 15 minutes and take some action toward clearing the path (aka remove an obstacle from achieving a goal). If, after the 15 minutes, you feel you are on a roll…keep going. It is that easy.
The above challenge came to me after my 91 year old Dad told me a story. Like many parents and grandparents, my Dad’s house has become a dumping ground for a lot of our possessions. I, for one, have many thousands of copies of Don’t Die with Your Song Unsung in the basement. It is one way to see your kids and grand kids without giving them money — have space for them to store stuff.
Our daughter, Dana Courtney, has 10 years of things piled up in Dad’s basement. Dad knew Dana would be returning from a long trip and would need access to many of her items. Unfortunately, winter had set in and many plants and patio items had crowded the back basement, making it impossible to navigate and reach her possessions.
For weeks Dad would visit the back basement, assess the mess — I mean, survey the situation — and determine he did not know where to start. Then one day, a day or two before her return, he did the same thing, except on that day he just began to move stuff. To his reported shock, within 5 minutes he had moved enough items that Dana could get her things. Five minutes! I would say it took a month of days plus 5 minutes. The month was the time it took him to stop believing he could not figure out a solution. The 5 minutes is what it took to get it done once he started.
Get started. You will be amazed how much easier it is than looking at the mess.
Motto for the first day of 2013: I know enough, I do enough, I am enough…and so are you, so get started.
