Break The Cycle
I’m afraid I don’t have the cure for you, but here’s my best advice from my personal experience on how to break this crazy cycle.
1st thing: Get Angry!
That’s right. You’ve got to reach that point where you say, “I’ve had it!” This is what started our journey to become debt free. We were stuck in an ugly spending rut, when finally I got angry enough to make a change. Change is tough, so it takes some radical attitude to make it happen. Are you mad enough? Or are you the old dog laying on the nail. You’ll move when it hurts enough.
2nd thing: Get Your Priorities Straight
You’ve got to get down and dirty. Dig deep and find out what is really important to you. An easy way may be to list all the things that are currently important highest to lowest, and then reverse the order. In the crazy cycle we tend to get it all mixed up and backwards. Focus on the top 5 at most to start. Everything else can wait while you figure out how to work it in, if at all. Are you really lost and just can’t figure it out? Find a purpose that is so stinkin’ bigger than yourself, and prioritize your life by that.
3rd thing: Make A Plan
Maybe something you didn’t want to hear. Especially all you optimistic, sanguine ADD type people (love you!). But you’ve got to have a general idea of how you’re going to approach life. And life is made one day at a time. Don’t pack it out so tightly that if one thing gets thrown off, your day goes down the tube. Try to put your highest priorities either first, or give them the best time. Currently my plan has me doing a lot first thing in the morning-devotions and exercising being the two most important. But with having to work till midnight some evenings, waking up early enough is not realistic. I’m going to need to evaluate, and see if there’s a better way to do lay things out. The early morning used to be the best time, but not so much anymore.
4th thing: Don’t Sweat It
I think it’s good to take life as seriously as you dare. I know my time here is short and I want to make the best and biggest impact that I can. However, if we can’t relax and laugh and just take a breath sometimes, we’re going to give up quickly. I think know that a reason many of us get on a crazy cycle is because if we “fall off the wagon” and feel like we failed. We then tend to set a point in the future where circumstances will be “perfect” and we’ll jump back on…only to fall off again. Well, as flylady says (paraphrased) you didn’t fall off the bandwagon, you’re not behind! You’re the one driving, so there’s nothing to catch up to. And only God is perfect. You focus on progress. The pressure is off.
While I try to see if there’s anything that works better for my schedule, I’m going to keep on giving it the best I’ve got. If I miss a day, I just pick up on the next day. No catching up. I don’t need to pile yesterday into today. A friend once told me something that helps me thinking this way: “One bad day is ok. Two in a row is a waste of time.” I give myself permission to not do it perfectly all the time, but I’m going to start again tomorrow. I’m not going to wait till the 1st of the the next week, month, or the new year to start again.
So you’ve probably heard all of this before. I don’t want to be a self-help motivational guru. But life matters, so I do hope this helps. Let me know if you have anything to add or subtract.
Photo by tanvach
Have you ever had that nagging feeling that there was something more to do with your life? I don’t remember exactly when it started for me...
OK-I know all of that but I just can’t do it! I think that’s one of the reasons some of us have trouble. We’re great at planning but can’t actually do what we wrote down.
@kbs hate to say it, but you might just not be mad enough yet.
and as you know, you can plan too much. as much as i love plans, they can never take the place of action like i learned first hand this past summer with my workout. i finally just gave up on all the perfect plans and routines, and went for it! and i was the most consistent and had the best results i ever had.
one thing I do to keep from getting too frustrated is to have a week’s worth of stuff on a schedule sheet I made—if I miss cleaning a bathroom that I had scheduled for a Monday, I won’t cross it off—but I”ll do it another day and then I’ll cross it off. Of course, this doesn’t work for something you want to do every day, like devotions, eating right, etc……
Great advice. When I first became committed to paying off my debt, it was because I got angry at MBNA/Bank of America for jacking up my interest rate.
So anger can be a good thing.
I’m finally making some good progress again, and that feels good.