"The pain of regret outweighs the pain of self-discipline"
- wish I knew whose quote this is. Wise words indeed that I need reminding of occasionally.
Admittedly we all have our fair share of little habits that irritate, enrage and even baffle the unfortunate ones who are around when we go into "high drama" mode. At times my personal oddities are even enough to drive myself mental - aesthetically awesome is not a description that comes to mind here. Quite the contrary.
On that note, why don't we touch on house/soul-keeping. Not the dusting and vacuuming kind but on a more personal level.
Taking stock of one's airs and quirks in an honest and frank way ever so often is a great tool for remaining firmly grounded.
Thing with house/soul-keeping though is that it's way easier to do it for someone else. Take the time to ponder just how much unasked-for advise we liberally dish out every day? The more highbrow, the better. Sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it. That brings us back to the pain of regret and rather biting ones tongue next time when the urge strikes to do your friends a "favour" on where they need some house/soul-keeping in your opinion. If you do find it impossible to keep it to yourself - do us all a real favour and think at least about the message you intend to bring across instead of blurting it out haphazardly. People and their feelings are equally fragile.
Personally, my stock taking during House/soul-keeping happens on paper. I prefer to put pencil to paper and word for word write of the annoying things I do or don't do. Oh man, and that list has the potential to grow quickly. With self-discipline and some elbow grease I'm working on the top three. I'm not telling, but one of my "monsters" could be to work on time management. Of course the pain of regret of not completing a project on time far outweighs the pain of disciplining myself to work in a more focussed manner.
See where I'm going with this?
I then proceed to writing a personal mantra or affirmation based on me actually having great time management skill - it is always worded in the present and I try to keep it positive. My mantra goes wherever I go since it's written on a scrap of paper that I carry in my i-pod case. Synchronicity enters the stage as well and all of a sudden I'm just happening to come across great books on the subject.
Magical? Mysterious? Who cares?
Point is that my time management skills really are improving - I even had time to blog today.
So whatever your "tool" might be for taking stock. Do it and take stock. Identify what is hindering you and start working on it.
Might sound (and prove to be) daunting but the feeling of being present and grounded as a result is worth the effort.
...and I'm all for feet firmly on the ground.
