Rebalyn

The hardest part of making any change is starting. Many people struggle with the idea of just getting started, but that truly is the secret to growth. You just have to start.

If you’re that person that likes to wait until you feel like doing something or will get to it “later,” let me tell you now: You will never feel like it! You won’t do it later. Just get to it now. Because if not now, when?

When will you clean your house? When will you start eating better? When will you start doing that thing you keep telling yourself you want to do, but put off for the 100th time? When??

If you’re anything like me, that last paragraph probably stressed you out and caused some shame and guilt to build up inside you, right? Trust me, I get it. I also fall into that spiral more often than I like to admit.

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I get incredibly overwhelmed by cleaning my house. I had a very negative relationship with cleaning so I hated it. When I did clean, it was usually in a frenzied state one day a month when things got embarrassingly bad. I was happier and more productive that first week after my cleaning frenzy and would slowly become more depressed and lethargic the dirtier it got. I knew this, but would still let my space become unbearably messy until I would snap and clean it all in one day because of how negatively I viewed cleaning. If I wanted to avoid the slump that came from a messy house, I realized I had to work on my relationship with cleaning to get myself do it more often.

I was deeply rooted in my “I’ll do it later” way of existing and knew I what I should do. I should clean throughout the month breaking down the tasks into bite size pieces. I tried that, but felt like I was constantly cleaning, which again, I hated. So I tried breaking it down into each room would be one day a month, but that still wasn’t truly manageable or as clean as I’d have liked. “I needed to get over myself,” I thought many times over, but bullying myself didn’t help either. What I really needed was to desensitize cleaning from being a negative thing to something I was indifferent about. A miracle would have to happen for me to actually enjoy cleaning, so I set the bar at indifference.

What changed the game was a little art print with the quote, “If not now, when?” I was always a big fan of quotes that resonated with me or put me in a goal mindset. With this little print, a lightbulb went off. I bought it and hung it above my kitchen sink. Everyday I would look at this little sign asking myself, “if not now, when?” over and over and over again. Soon, it started to pop up in my head right behind “I’ll do it later.”

It would happen like this: I’d think: “I need to put that dish in the sink–ehhh I’ll do it later..IF NOT NOW WHEN!” So then I’d do it.

It makes me laugh looking back because it sounds absolutely bonkers writing it out. But it worked. I stopped avoiding the little tidying tasks and started silencing that procrastinating voice in my head. I’d ask myself “What am I doing now that is so important I can’t walk a dish to the sink?” Nothing except that I don’t want to do it, and that wasn’t a good enough answer. Eventually, doing these little tasks made not only my monthly cleaning days less overwhelming, but I began to feel indifferent about doing the little tasks that I’d otherwise avoided. They just weren’t that big of a deal anymore.

This is where Newton’s first Law of Productivity comes in. While going down my to-do lists of tasks, I kept reminding myself, “an object in motion stays in motion.” If I just got started, I could build momentum to complete other tasks I had been putting off. Completing tasks is not done through sheer will. It’s a continuous build up doing a task, feeling good about getting it done (a dopamine hit), and using that good feeling as momentum to complete another task. Getting started may always be a struggle, and for me, it still is. But once I get going, I keep rolling for awhile.

This idea of creating momentum paid off and I started to branch out and do previously avoided tasks like cleaning the dishes right after dinner instead of letting them pile up for 2 weeks. I’d take ten minutes a day and tidy up the room, putting things in their place because I liked having a clean room. I cleaned the ceiling fan that I hadn’t cleaned in over a year because I wanted that satisfied feeling of having a clean fan. My roommate and I have even played off each other’s momentum because we both struggle with procrastination. We celebrate each other doing the tasks we dislike doing around the house because those small victories create the momentum to accomplish other things.

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While your issue may not be cleaning, the issue of procrastination is common for many of us. Many of us are overwhelmed and frozen by the size of the goals or to-dos we have and that stops us from starting altogether. I had tried bullying myself into better cleaning habits, but nothing truly changed until I changed my mindset around it and worked on it being an indifferent experience instead of a negative one. I even would celebrate completing tasks with my friends.

I started applying “If not now, when” to almost every part of my life:

I want to make personal changes to be better. If not now, when?

I want to build a life I love. If not now, when?

I want to work on becoming financially stable. If not now, when?

Then question isn’t whether or not you can. It’s when are you going to start?

Love and Light,

B