First steps can be hard. I wrote that three years ago. Large, complicated projects can be overwhelming. Even little projects can be overwhelming, when you have enough of them. I remember my brother saying he had things to do that would each take about five minutes, but there a hundred of them. It's easy to just give up.
It helps to think that I can't do everything today, but I can do these three things. Another idea is to give myself a short period of time--such as 15 minutes--to work on something. I have permission to stop after the 15 minutes. Often, I'll continue after that time limit.
Now, what about the setbacks? It's one thing when the setbacks are out of your control. Yesterday our new cable box in the bedroom didn't work. I spent about a half hour on a live chat with a service rep trying to fix the problem. We couldn't fix the problem, and laundry got pushed back.
The real problem is when you cause your own setbacks. On Wednesday, I was up around 6. For a brief moment, I thought that I could possibly get to the gym by 7:30. I quickly walked that back: 8 would be more realistic. But then I got sucked into the Internet slideshows: first, classic 1960's cars and then stars without makeup.
I got to the gym by 8:20. 20 minutes is not a major setback. But it got me thinking. How many times do I read one more article, watch a few more minutes of TV? It adds up.
I need to focus on these minor setbacks to keep them from becoming a major problem.
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