It is Motivation Monday Monday!
If you need change and your life is not what you want it to be and you are searching for a solution, it all starts at home.
Did you know that we are happier when we feel in control? In the book “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert, we learn that feeling we are in control of our lives, boosts happiness to a higher level. Even when, or if, life is quite uncomfortable.
In Daniel Gilbert’s book he writes that when we lose our ability to control things, we feel helpless, hopeless, unhappy and depressed. Gaining control has a positive effect on us. Many studies show that having a sense of control of our days and life, transforms emotions from unhappy, to happy, even if nothing else externally has changed at all.
So for this Motivation Monday, I want you to pick something to take charge of.
Here is something that happened to me about 25 years ago that proves this concept.
I moved to Florida from New Jersey and was very unhappy there. I missed my family a great deal especially my father, and there were many other things that added to the dispair I was feeling at the time.
There were serious financial difficulties, our living conditions were quite squished, my husband and I were not doing well in our relationship and we only had 1 car, in which I only had access to on Fridays. I was so sad, I would dream that I lived a different life and couldn’t wait to go to sleep at night to “live” it.
One day I was watching QVC and Pam Young and Peggy Jones were selling a new version of their system (I had read their book Sidetracked Home Executives 5 years earlier and I had mastered a super organized life as a result.)
They had their card box system manufactured so that the buyer just had to file it all to begin implemnting it. It also came with a VHS tape, a couple of cassette tapes and a work book.
I had been organized for 5 years by then, my life had drastically changed and my home was neat, tidy and ran like a clock, I no longer used the card box that kept me on track.
Everything I did now was on auto pilot. But I put together the newly delivered system and began following it anyway.
One new thing they had incorporated in that system was a rate your day section. They instructed that a rating of 1 was likened to being strapped to the blades of a food processor, and 10 was like you hit the million dollar lottery. They had assigned the number 5 to being like the drapes at the motel 6. Just hanging there.
Well, in the beginning of using the card box again, and not doing things on auto pilot my days were 1 and 0 and even negative 3… But soon things changed. My day rate became 5 and then I was rating days with the number 7, sometimes my ratings got up to 8 and 9!
I wondered what made that happen, because everything was the same. I was still married to the same man lol, still living in Florida, still far away from family, still had the saem money problems, we still only had one car making me feel trapped.. but something obviously had changed something big…
I learned that what changed was the feeling of control of my days and therefore my life.
Before, even though I had been living an organized life it was being run without thought, after I set up the system again and began using it I was more thoughtful of each day. I planned how every day was going to go and took my time to arrange each day and my family’s days.
I took control, and I got happier!
I encourage you to do this for yourself. You can start small, make a plan to take the reigns in your life.
Here are some things you can do to begin this process.
You can:
*Get up at the same time every day and create a plan to follow for the morning.
*Create a nighttime routine to go along with your morning routine.
*Make a plan to de-clutter a space, closet, or room and stick to your plan, so you can see the results happen and know that you are in control.
You can then move on to another area of the house.
This will help you gain a feeling of control that will catapult you into living the life you wish to live, and set in motion the change you are looking for.
With each new habit and plan, you build momentum and feel happier because you are making a difference, and you know the change your looking for is just around the corner.
So, what will you get done today? What will you decide to take control of? Where will you start? Let me know in the comments below!
Love,
Kathy
If you want more support with this, enroll in Tidy Tutor University! For a complete life makeover, it all starts at home. Click the link below for more information. https://go.thetidytutor.com/ttu50