Do The Next Thing

I read a great article this morning which emphasized the importance of just doing the next thing.  Not the endless "to-do" lists, or the unreachable quest of perfection, but only the next thing.  This was just what I needed to hear this morning in week 3 of homeschooling, therapy appointments, laundry, and Corbin's new school.  My last two weeks have been awesome in some respects, and downright failures in others!

I have excelled in working through my lesson plan for Hayden and we are definitely accomplishing and making progress.  Even when I was sick one day last week, we still finished all our work for the week.

But, in that same time, I've cooked dinner, oh about two times.  We ate out a lot and we grabbed lunch in the drive-thru most days.

I have successfully shuttled Corbin to and from appointments and gotten him ready for school each morning by his 7 o'clock bus time.

I have also struggled fitting in his daily "homework" from his speech therapist.

I haven't drowned in a pile of laundry (yet), but the laundry baskets aren't empty either.  I will say that no one has come stumbling out of their room complaining that they have no underwear.  So I'll call that a win.

And the last fail, I've been able to work out only once a week.  But hey, I did work out once each week, which could have been not at all...so success?  I guess it depends on your benchmarks.

So this morning, when I was feeling unmotivated and tired, all I really wanted to do was to stay in bed all day.  When I stumbled out of the bedroom, my previously clean living room now had toys all over it.  In the span of two hours, all my hard work from the previous day was erased.  And that's how it feels a lot of the time.  I clean so that I can clean some more later!  There is no "finish line" for me.  That irritates me.  I'm very much a completion, "job well done" type of gal.  Hrmph.

So in an effort to avoid my inevitable "work", I started my daily blog reading and came across this jewel - which had me saying "Exactly!" and "Yes!!!" a lot.  That's exactly what I needed to read this morning.  Just do the next thing.  I need to let go of what I'm not doing, what needs to be done, and what I should be doing...and just do the next thing.

I am letting go of my feelings of failure and inadequacies, my desire (although unattainable) for perfection, and my need to achieve and accomplish.

And I'm just doing the next thing...which right now means eating lunch. ;)