I’m going to try something new, again, for the rest of this year. Each publication date, (every other Tuesday), I’ll write a post on a different topic or angle, and ask for your feedback on which subject you are most interested in hearing more about.
I would appreciate claps, comments, suggestions, and hearing about your favorite posts.
My usual topic: “Read. Think. Walk. Write” is both literary and practical, providing insights from daily life – reading, walking, etc., adding the twist of a poet’s perspective, and helping you apply those insights to your life, your job, and your business.
My idea is that we don’t have to just assume there is only one way of seeing and doing things. Sometimes we need to question our assumptions, and “the way things have always been done,” to find a better fit for our needs.
This post will be a short version of the same approach, and a temporary farewell to this type of post. Then next time I’ll start the experiment with something new.
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“Well Begun Is Half Done.”
For me, movie quotes aren’t that different from quotes and insights I gather from reading, because movies are often based on books, or real life. At the least, they are also based on words, and created by an artist, just like books.
I don’t remember if this phrase was in the movie “Mary Poppins,” but it was in the film “Saving Mr. Banks,” which was about, P.L. Travers, the writer of the “Mary Poppins” books the movie was based on.
This quote was attributed to the author’s brusque, business-like aunt. She tended to use it to get everyone in the household involved in tackling and completing chores, but I think the phrase applies well to any task, small or large, that we may be dreading or putting off.
I am someone who finds “transitions” of almost any kind a natural challenge and source of resistance. If I’m up I don’t want to go to bed. If I’m in bed I don’t want to get up. If I’m home, I don’t want to leave. If I’m away, I don’t want to go home. If I’m into one activity I don’t want to move onto the next. You get the idea.
This resistance is magnified when I perceive the task at hand as boring, tiring, overwhelming, or just don’t want to do it, or know where to begin.
One especially mundane example is washing my (long, heavy) hair. It’s a tiring chore to me, and really breaks up my day. But once my hair is thoroughly wet and I’m committed, it isn’t that hard to get the rest of the job done. I’ve often found myself saying this ‘Poppinsesque’ phrase once I have begun.
When it comes to a more daunting task, such as beginning a new writing project or assignment, the same holds true, and is even more helpful. Just getting something down on the page helps, because then you’ve already started. You have something to add to, gradually shape, and improve, instead of the dreaded blank page.
In this case, as with other larger projects, you don’t have to do it all at once. In fact, if you’re at all dreading it or uncertain how to proceed, just making a start, however small, takes you that much closer to accomplishing the task, with as little pain as possible.
Many of you will be familiar with the “Pomodoro Method,” where you set a timer for 25 minutes (or in practice any time you want), work on the project at hand until the timer goes off, and then quit until next time. You can get a surprising amount done in short, concentrated spurts, which will make it easier to build on your progress in the next session.
This idea of just beginning, just taking a step forward, however small, can be applied to many aspects of life. Sometimes once you start you can finish a small job all at once and have it off your list. Other times just doing something helps make a large job you do over time much less daunting.
Either way, I encourage you to take that first step today. Sign up for that course you’ve been meaning to take, buy paint for the room you’ve been wanting to redecorate, learn two new words in a language you’ve been contemplating learning, clean out one drawer (or if your desk is like mine part of one drawer) in your desk or dresser.
Once you’ve begun, you’re on your way to being done with something you may never have started otherwise.
I hope you’ll join me next time to take part in my experiment. I‘ll call the first post: “What I Learned From My Centenarian Friend.”
You’re such an excellent writer and I really enjoyed reading this piece.
Thank you so much!
Glad you enjoyed it. I hope you’ll enjoy some of my “test” subjects, and let me know what you’d like to see more of.