Story Chapter 10 - do shit

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
― James A. Froude

When I was considering what to write for this post I was fairly hard on myself. I sort of felt like I hadn't done much at all. Just thinking and writing. But the fact of the matter the thinking has taken me a long way and I feel a lot clearer on the what, why and how of everything. And with that knowledge I am in a better place to move forward and start doing. So the next part for me is both to continue thinking and start doing.

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start now and make a brand new ending."

There's so much advice around the place on how to 'do' change. The most common message you get is to start small and focus on one thing at a time. I struggle with this on a couple of different levels. The first is that I never focus on one thing at a time. Never. I am always thinking, planning and doing  multiple things.

 The second issue I have is that time is of the essence. I need all the changes to start happening now. I can't wait till I have..... before I start ..... I can't say to my family: "Ok well I'm going to focus on losing weight- you lot just take care of yourself while I drop 40kg and then come back in a year+ and say right now lets sort out the negative aspects of our family culture." All of the things that I need to happen are important- certainly some are more important than others. For example I think the happiness of my family is more important than my weight. BUT I think the happiness level of my family would be seriously positively impacted if Les and I lost a bunch of kilos.

So I thought about how I might tackle more than one thing at once and keep myself accountable. One of the most famous people to do this was Benjamin Franklin. He wrote a list of specific virtues and their meaning to him that he aspired to follow. He made himself a grid sheet and each day checked off the virtues that he has succeeded in following that day. You can read a little more about it here.

So that's what I'm inspired to do in this situation. I like the idea of having a visual indication of how I am going each day and it's worked for me in the past with a couple of things- it's a bit like a sticker chart for adults really.

Therefore my next job is to come up with my list. I'll keep you posted...

"We are all, each one of us, at every turn, an
instant away from profound change. 

Every moment counts, it really does"