How to Get a Piece of Peace in Your Life

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Do One Thing

Your task list: it could be on a piece of paper, or it could be in your head. Either way, you probably have something, or many things, that are unfinished or incomplete. It could be something like finally going through that pile of mail. Or it could be something like finally contacting an old friend. No matter what it is, these things follow us around and haunt us, in some fashion, even when we've distracted ourselves with our daily lives and other things that are more of a priority or preference.

Today, do ONE task on that list. ONE.

If you have too many in your head, then your one task could be to write out the list. If one of your tasks is a multi-step process, then do ONE step of that one task.

You can make the one step as small as you want. It can be simply finding the phone number that you need, but not actually making the phone call yet. You want to slowly chip away at the things that seem overwhelming. Once you've completed one small item, you feel confident, capable, and motivated to do more.

If actively doing something is also too much, at least begin to picture yourself doing it. Visualization is a powerful motivator. That alone is one step closer.

You'll be lighter in the rest of your day. Just take one step today.