A Year to Change: Conversations with women on choice, connections, and clarity in midlife

It seems I’m just trying to think about getting control of stuff in my life, but not doing a very good job of actually DOING the things I think I think are important. Is that vague enough?

And maybe that’s just the first step.

Now — this is the part where my husband thinks I might be sharing too much information. But I’m gonna take my chances and hope you really want to make changes, too. We can’t do that if we’re not honest… so here goes:

A couple of facts:

• My habit in the morning is to get up, put on slippers and a robe, come downstairs, make coffee and then check my email. Who KNOWS what important life altering emails might show up in the night?! I definitely NEED to know that stuff! As I’m guessing you know, it sucks down a bit of time.

• I work for myself alone at home, so most of my work is either at the computer or on the phone — neither of which require makeup or Armani suits.

• I have ADHD so when I get into something, it’s often hard for me to switch to something else. Time can just go away while I sit here thinking of something to say here or in any of the other couple of blogs or websites I manage.

• AND, the reason this is important will be apparent next, we live in an old house with only one bathroom… upstairs.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to connect a new habit to an existing one. As a coach I know that’s when it’s easiest. So I figured at the point in the morning where I go back upstairs to that one bathroom, I could commit to getting dressed AND (Oh, my father would be horrified if he knew I wasn’t doing this already) make my bed!

I have to tell you that’s working pretty well, much better, in fact, than my deal with the mail man that he wouldn’t see me in my robe ever again. (He gets to our house around noon!)

So a week or 10 days ago I decided I could add 15 minutes of exercise to that morning routine. Once I had a Leslie Sansone video from the library. I had it for six weeks. Watched it once. But I figured based on that knowledge, this time I could sorta walk around my living room for 15 minutes and it would be better than nothing. One day I did about 10 minutes before a client called. I shoulda known there weren’t even 15 minutes free. Nevertheless …

I could be beating myself up over that. But what’s the point? I did 10 minutes once, and that’s surely better than nothing.

So what I have to find is a way to be successful more often and get used to the new routine.

So here’s what I’m trying next:
I’ll do all that morning stuff that’s working plus just five minutes of walking. Or maybe just one song on the radio or iPod.

Tell you what, in my best coaching accountability process and committing to the tiniest of steps: I promise that by Friday of this week I will have picked the songs I’ll walk to. I’ll post them here. It will be a tiny step.

I have committed to a year to change. But I have to take at least a tiny step or there’s no possibility of success.

Watch the comments link below for my tiny step.

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