Small and Simple Ways

Cure Someday Syndrome - wikiHow

2009-02-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

How to Cure Someday Syndrome

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Someday Syndrome: not doing what you want to because you don’t know what it is, probably because you’re procrastinating about it, or because you have too much stuff getting in your way.
Everyone suffers from Someday Syndrome at some point in their lives, often catching it repeatedly. You probably have something similar going on in your life – a project, a task, a goal – that you just haven’t got around to doing yet. Right? It would be easy to quote Nike and say: Just Do It, but if it were that simple Someday Syndrome wouldn’t exist. Here are some key ways to cure Someday Syndrome so that you don’t need to suffer through a cure.

Steps

Be you. This is the happiness project’s number one happiness commandment. Maybe you’re not doing something because in reality, it doesn’t fit with who you are. If so, dump the idea and the expectations that likely came along with it, and go find something that suits you better.
Clear out the junk. If you don’t know what would suit you better, it could be because your mind and emotions are all cluttered up. If your mind’s in chaos, how could you possibly make a clear decision on getting rid of your somedays? The clutter includes the negative thoughts (like thinking that you would never be able to run more than 30 minutes without dying), or negative attitudes (saying to yourself "I'm too lazy to run").
- How to Overcome Procrastination Using Self Talk
- How to Be Optimistic
Know what you want. And why you want it. If you are going cure Someday Syndrome, you’ll need to know details about that desire and the reasons behind it. And if you don’t know what that is, the blogosphere is full of blogs ready to help you figure out your dreams.
Make a grand plan. “Grand” because this is the big picture plan. Don’t get carried away. Planning can feel like action, but really it’s no different than talking. Until you actually do something, you’re still procrastinating. Starting is more important than getting into detailed plans.
Take one step at a time. The only details you need to choose at this point is first steps. Don't get overwhelmed by details. Just focus on just the next two or three things that you're going to do.
Ignore the rest. That’s right. Ignore everything else in the goal except what you’re working on. We often use comparisons of where we are now to where we want to be as a form of procrastination. While checking in is always a good thing, we can do it when each small task is completed, and not in the middle of a task. When you're in the middle of my current activity, don’t think about what’s coming up next week. Why would you want to freak yourself out?
Get help. Daniel Gilbert in his book Stumbling on Happiness, says that the best route to figuring out if our goals will actually make us happy is to talk to others who have done it. Also try to be lazy when you can be, so if someone else has done the work, then there’s no need to waste your time reinventing the wheel, now is there?
Don’t compare. Be careful when you get help, because the dream-shattering tendency to compare lurks nearby.
Be uncomfortable. Judith Sills in her book The Comfort Trap, or What If You’re Riding a Dead Horse? talks about how we might be terribly unhappy, but we’re comfortable so we don’t do anything about the unhappiness. Happiness is a risk, but the current situation even if it’s painful is safe. Which would you prefer? Comfortably in pain and unhappy or uncomfortably blissful?
Celebrate the process as well as the end. Acknowledge your progress. Use your FaceBook, blogs, other means to write about the progress. Tell others. And in turn, this sharing inspires others and helps them move past their own Somedays and toward achieving their goals.
Don’t stop at the easy point. Wait a second. It's important to push yourself just a little bit further than you think you can go. Commit beyond your initial goals. While you’re celebrating and taking it one step at a time, come up with one unexpected action you can take that’ll add energy, excitement and a bit of fear to your goal. That bit of fear will probably be the best motivator you’ve ever found.

Video

A talk by Ed Foreman about how "Someday Syndrome" can play out through life.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Original source of article, Zen Habits, Alex Fayle, 11 ways to cure someday syndrome. Shared under an uncopyright licence.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Cure Someday Syndrome. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Bubblewrap Appreciation Day!

2009-01-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

Today is bubblewrap appreciation day. Yah! To celebrate, I hope to add some virtual Bubblewrap to my blog. Here goes!

Well, I can't seem to get that one to work. Let's try another.

Well, how about some links ;)

The site where I got all these links from doesn't want to be hyper, so you'll just have to insert it manually: http://www.fast-pack.com/bubblewrapappreciation.html
http://www.fast-pack.com/popgame/popgame.html
http://www.urban75.com/Mag/bubble.html
http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml
http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/playmusic.shtml

Have fun! Don't waste too much time. Just a little! :)

I'm on YouTube!

2008-12-23T17:33:00.001-08:00

I was trying to post a video that I took with my digital camera on another blog and it wasn't working! I tried everything! So, finally I decided to try uploading it to YouTube because they have all that HTML coding for embedding it into webpages and stuff. It worked! I'm so excited! I am officially on YouTube now! Creepy! My first video EVER! Anyway, use this link to see it: Snow in Vegas
I would use the embed feature like I did with the Shugo Chara episodes, but it would be more fun to actually go to YouTube. Enjoy!

Self-Sacrifice

2008-12-14T08:35:00.001-08:00

So much for regular posting... oh well.

I've been thinking alot about the meaning of self-sacrifice lately. I used to think that it meant giving up something you wanted for the betterment of yourself or family. Then I started thinking about the "self" part of self-sacrifice. So now I'm wondering, does it mean giving up who you are in order to stay in your situation? Truly sacrificing your self? If thats so, then how do you do that without imploding or becoming a "woe is me!" martyr? I don't know. I don't know how to be who I am and still be happy with my life.

more animals

The Potential Within

2008-11-15T10:07:00.001-08:00

My kids are totally in to Japanese Anime and I must admit that I'm hooked too. I found this really good series named Shugo Chara about the potential within or your "would-be" self. You really should watch it from the beginning, but I found these episodes particularly educational. I'm not going to point out where and what the messages are that I got from it. Hopefully they will be self-evident. There's three parts to each episode, so be sure to click on the correct part and watch the whole episode. It will look like: Episode 11 1/3, 2/3, and so on. Enjoy!

Episode 11

Episode 14

Episode 15

Explore

2008-11-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

Have I told you how much I love Google? I love Google! One of the things I have from Google is iGoogle. It's awesome. On this awesome page is a widget called "The How To of the Day". It links to a site called wikiHow. On this site I found this morsel that I thought I'd share:

Create an Abundance Mentality - wikiHow

Let me know if the link doesn't work. This is an awesome site that you could get lost in for hours, so remember, everything in moderation!

The Joys of Opposition

2008-11-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

I had to change the format to be able to accomodate the cat pictures but I don't really like it. Unfortunately, it's the only one I've seen so far that doesn't have some sort of sidebar. Maybe I can shrink the pictures. Don't be surprised if the format and things keep changing for a while until I find one I like. But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

Oh Beautiful, Wonderful, Glorious Day!!! What a Joy it is to be alive on such an occasion!!! There is nothing more Life Affirming and Peaceful!!! Such Power, such Simplicity!!! How Rejuvinating and Calming!!! What a visual and auditory Delight!!!

It's Raining.

Calm, gentle, ephemeral, and fleeting. Not lasting long enough, but Joyous to behold!

I live in the Desert, you see. Water is life. The sun is harsh and dessicating. Rain is the shade and the release of a stress that you didn't know you had because you're so used to the oppressive (albeit, life-sustaining in it's own right) sun. To those if you who might be reading this from Seattle or some other high rain area, you may not appreciate my excitement about rain. However, I feel it might be safe to say that my feelings about rain are the same ones that you feel about the sun!! To you, sun is a rare and fleeting occasion and you would enjoy it as much as I do the rain! Unless you hate the sun at all times. In that case you would also be like me in the fact that most people where I live would curse rainy days because they love the sun at all times. I, however, go against the grain and bless rainy days, despite the fact that no one here knows how to drive when the roads get wet. Wear your seatbelts.

The rain has stopped and the sun is coming out as I shout, "BOOO!!". My twist to the childrens chant of "Rain, rain, go away; come again another day!" is "Sun, sun, go away; don't come back another day!". There is another blessing of the union of sun and rain....

RAINBOWS!!!

Have a Glorious Day!

Tsunamis

2008-11-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Before the Halloween post, I ended with talking about tsunamis. So now I'll explain. Mostly because I really need to catch up on the last 5 days and don't want to. So I'll do something easy to ease back into blogging.

I got all of the following information from a site called myjellybean.com. It's a site for teenage girls and it has some interesting things on it. Anyway, all the credit goes to http://www.myjellybean.com/ and I hope I don't get in trouble.

WATER is the universal symbol for EMOTIONS in dreams. Therefore, you must pay close attention to how the water is behaving!
A dream of drinking cold water is a sign of good luck.
Throwing or spilling water on anyone indicates a need to control your temper.
Hot water foretells a season of social setbacks.
Hearing or seeing running water predicts lasting happiness.
Rising water indicates rising emotions.
A waterfall in your dream forecasts a happy rise in social status.
Turbulent, choppy waters, in which a dreamer fears being swamped or drowning, symbolizes that you are being overwhelmed emotionally.
Tidal waves may symbolize specific threats that loom in the distance.
Being caught in a swift moving current suggests being swept up in your emotions.
Cloudy water suggests lack of emotional clarity.
Gently flowing water promises contentment and peace of mind.
Clean, clear water suggests good sense and emotional clarity.
If you dream that you are able to breathe underwater, you are open to unconscious feelings and psychic awareness.
If you dream of having the power to control water, this symbolizes your spiritual and intellectual growth. You are not using your full potential - you have considerable energy and mental abilities, and you need to start using them to put your thoughts into action. Controlling water in a dream may also indicate a need to control your temper better.
To dream of walking on water means that you have supreme control over your emotions. It may suggest that you should keep your emotions contained, so they don't explode. This dream can also symbolize faith in yourself.

MyJellybean.com has a lot of other definitions for water, but I didn't feel like copying them all.

Therefore, my dreams of tsunamis symbolized rising emotions, a specific threat that looms in the distance, and being swept up in my emotions. A day or so later, I totally blew up at my son for being who he is (he has Aspergers Disorder) and just having a huge blowout in general. It was bad. Children were crying, I was screaming, Grandmother was trying to soothe. Bad. And that's all I have to say about that.

Maybe there's something to dreams after all (don't tell my husband!!).

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T23:37:00.000-07:00

more animals

If you want to see more family friendly, funny cat pictures, go see my blog "Good Kitty!"
The pictures above didn't make it into my Halloween post on Good Kitty!, so I hope you like them.

I'm a Hippie

2008-10-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Today's Tally:

Laundry: 1+1+1+1+1 and maybe +1 more. So many things happen during the day that I forget to remember.

I need to stop using words like "finally". I "finally" ate breakfast; I "finally" got it done; I "finally" got around to blogging, etc, etc. The use of the word "finally" is judgemental and harsh. Remember, I'm working on being nice to myself. So, instead of saying, "I finally ate breakfast at about 11:15 this morning" (even though I've been up since 6:30), mearly stating that I ate breakfast is enough. No judgement, only joy that I am nourishing my body. No condemning myself for the 5 hour wait. Just enjoying my small and simple shrimp and green pea salad (it was good). Just saying that I ate breakfast and being happy and relaxed about it. Being happy that I could take time out of my busy schedule to enjoy this moment of sustenance.
My husband (who happened to be reading over my shoulder at the time) suggested that instead of "finally", I substitute it for words such as: peacefully, triumphantly, happily. Pretty much any positive "--ly" word will do. Try it! It changes your entire outlook!

My two oldest children are home-schooled through a virtual school and today was the bi-weekly online meeting with their "teacher". One of my recent discoveries about myself is that I am a Hippie in disguise. When they say, "Peace, man!", I am all over it. Even if I have to rip out all your vocal cords, I will have peace. Peace at all costs. I will have my Ohm. Do "militant" and "peace" go together? The armed forces probably think so, but that's an entirely different discussion. Anyway, about the conference. Because I have allowed my husband to enable me, we have a very lenient policy on discipline (discipline? What's that?). The teacher was asking why my oldest hasn't been doing the work, to which my child promptly replies, "Because I don't like doing schoolwork." As I am shaking my head at the ignorance of my child's brutal honesty, I start to hear what I expect to hear from the teacher. "Well, you may not like it but that's what you're supposed to be doing at this time in your life. If it wasn't with us, then it would have to be at a brick-and-mortar school. Now, I know we've talked about this before (speaking to me) and I guess we just have different views about education. I think that it's very important and my children don't have a choice in the matter. As long as they're under my roof, they'll do as I say, until they're out on their own. In my opinion, we, as adults, being older and having more life experience, know better than a child the consequences that their decisions will have later in life." And on, and on, and on. I must interject that I am a Gemini and, as such, have a split personality by nature. So while half of me is chafing from the scolding from the teacher and yelling into the other room, "Yeah! Are you listening!?", the other half of me is thinking, "Yeah, but what about peace and letting people be who they are and learning the things that will make them happy?" I know the latter half of me is deceiving myself. The real reason is simply that I don't want to fight!! I don't like it, I don't have the strength for it, it's exhausting, it's humiliating, it's demoralizing, it's loud, and (in the short term) your children hate you and throw even bigger, huge, giant, stinky fits! I don't consider myself a coward. While trying not to take the teachers comments as a personal attack, I thought, "How nice that you have so much backbone." This is another thing that I am working on. How to get the children to do what they're supposed to without giving in to my "Peace at all costs" attitude. Sometimes the cost is just too high and a temporary khaos needs to reign in order to have peace eternal.

My soapbox and I will have much more to say later.

Accomplishments of the Day:
Laundry
Blogging
Making dinner
Repairing an apron
Helping my Mom sew
Called our landlord about the water heater
Got the kids up and to school on time
Bathed a kid while having to boil water for the heat because our water heater is not staying lit
Washed my hair
Cleaned the table off after dinner
Did I mention doing laundry? (Our dryer is still out)
That's all that comes to mind for now.

I shall wish you good evening and pleasant dreams. I've been dreaming about tsunamis lately. I'll tell you what it means later. It makes sense but now I'm curious...what could it be?

Blah

2008-10-24T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling kinda down today. I'm out of town and my son decides to have a fit at school. My husband just went to work and couldn't get him, so his older sister had to go and stay with him at school until someone could go and get them. I'm trying to help my mom who is recovering from kidney failure and there's lots of things I want to do, but I don't have the time that I want. She really is okay and doesn't need anyone with her full time. I would just feel better knowing that someone was with her for just a few weeks. I'd like it to be me, but I'll have to settle for my two oldest children for now because my son is having issues. So, my perfectionism poison is popping up again and making me feel like crap because everything is so unsettled right now. So, this is when I need to be happy about the things I accomplished today.

Today I: (in no particular order) Made dinner--new recipe; it was good.
Measured the fridge in the storage unit to see if it would fit in mom's house; woke up; put my bed away; got dressed; put more toilet paper in the bathroom; helped cut out a shirt and skirt; reminded my mom to drink water; found out info about my husbands storage unit; purposely got lost to see if I could find my way back; made several calls between home, school, my husband and friends; started working on a meal plan; and stapled a backing on a fabric bulletin board and put nails in it to hang it up.

Of course, the poison wants me to tell you all the things that didn't happen today, but that would defeat the purpose of this blog/life exercise. I will suffice it to say,

I DID GOOD!!

There were difficult times today but it turned out alright. Everythings okay! Really...(twitch, twitch)!

All kidding aside, there were things on my to do list that got done and that is worthy of my praising myself.

Thank you, Me, for doing such a good job today. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.

On Being Nice to Myself

2008-10-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

The main reason I started this blog was to remind myself that everything counts. Even though something may not get "done", whatever work I did counts and is good and valid and worthwhile.

I have this habit, you see, of having VERY productive days and going to bed feeling depressed and defeated because it didn't get DONE!! I could do 3 loads of dishes (by hand; we don't have a dishwasher) and 7 loads of laundry (that I have to hang on the clothesline because our dryer is broken), run errands, help the kids with their homework, fix dinner, and on and on and on, and STILL think that the whole day was wasted because there's still dishes to do. Or laundry. Or errands. Or making beds. Or cleaning the bathroom (which hasn't seen a mop in months). And on, and on, and on.

Therefore! The purpose of this blog is to catalog all the things I did today from getting my husband to work on time, to getting the kids to bed on time, and all the stuff in between. All day, every day. Theoretically. Because I hate turning on the massive time suck that is the computer. But, I'm working on that too. That's my motto: "I'm working on it".

I suffer from Perfectionism Poison. It's a nasty, vile poison that seeps into your brain and whispers to you that you're no good and worthless because you didn't get it "done". Sometimes, when it's feeling especially fiesty, it will shout, "YOU SUCK!!". Fortunately, there is an antidote. All you have to say is, "Nevertheless, I forgive myself and will continue to move forward, complimenting myself for what I have done and appreciating myself for the person that I am. I have unique strenghts and talents that I am using to help my family, and myself, to grow and to become more like the people that we want to be, not what other people think we should be." Say it whether or not you believe it! Accepting yourself is the hardest thing, ever. Because if you can't truly love and accept yourself then you can't truly love and accept others.

I've been challenged to truly fall in love with myself. To see the wonderful person that I am and all of my good qualities. To look at myself and think, "Gee, I'd really like to be her friend!", and mean it. To know that I'm doing the best I can and that it's wonderful. To not listen to the poison say that I'll do better tomorrow, because what I did today was great and worthy of praise and reward. To make peace with myself and stop fighting the battle within. To play nice. If that's what it takes to progress, then so be it. I am ready to love myself so that I may love humanity.