10 Realistic Ways to Stay Positive Part 9

Life is for the most part a series of little steps, when we actually want to leap. As I was writing this someone said—“Like clean a room instead of the whole house”. I was thinking more like cleaning one counter top.  There are moments when one room is too overwhelming. 

 

 The smaller you break down the steps the more manageable it becomes to deal with.

10 Realistic Ways to Stay Positive - Part 8

Don’t be paralyzed by perfection. I grew up in a family that has OCD and was drilled from a very young age that if you couldn’t do it perfectly --don’t do it all.

It was my freshman college roommate who began to point this out to me. She would get up and make her bed before she even went to the bathroom. This was just as comforters began to be popular. She was a very neat person, but made her bed by pulling up the sheets and pulling the comforter over them. She pointed out that one of the reasons I hated to make my bed was it took 15 minutes. I pulled down the top sheets, smoothed out the bottom sheet, pulled the top sheet perfectly to the top edge…and the whole process ended with the bedspread the exact same amount from the floor the whole length of the bed.  It really did take 15 minutes.  It was the beginning of learning not everything had to be perfect. 

 I still am a little nuts about how I make the bed, but have made great strides in changing how I approached things----and it is amazing how much more I get done. A day with my family members reminds me how far I have come!

10 Realistic Ways to Stay Positive - Part 5

Listen to music you like---on your MP3, your sound system, in the car ---whatever.

And blast it….at least for a few minutes.

Move to it---dance, tap your toes, wave your hands --whatever works for you. Sometimes I will go a long time without listening to music because I am so busy “thinking” about what has to be done, I forget to turn it on. Suddenly I will be around music and sense my mood shift immediately.