What? You Mean Now I Actually Have to DO Something??

Well my friends, this is my fifth and final piece in this series on how to level up your mindset.  We’ve been in the trenches talking about self-limiting speech, ways we get caught in our thoughts and go a little nuts, and the importance of choosing who we spend time with.  Each week I’ve given different ways to challenge yourselves, try something new, and focus your attention in a new way.  So now what? 

Now it’s time to take action, and do something. Many of the wonderful readers of my blogs strive for perfection.  They want to be the best they can, produce flawless results, have perfect children, write the best thank you card – you name it, they want to be perfect at it.  But with a goal of perfection, often comes paralysis.  You don’t want to do a single thing unless you have ALL the information, have thought about every which way of doing something, and you finally feel like you can do something impeccably.  Does this sound like you?  Have you read my series every week and given it some serious thought, but still find yourself doing the exact same things you were doing 5 weeks ago?  Or even 5 years ago?

What we do now is to make a step forward.  ANY step forward.  If you know you are one of those people that needs a mountain of information before taking action, give yourself a vacation from that for now.  I like to think about the movie What About Bob?  Remember when his doctor told him to take a vacation from his problems?  Well now I, Dr. Tracey, give you a prescription to take a vacation from your perfectionism!

The beauty of deciding to do even one small thing to get moving, is makes it that much easier to keep taking steps!  We all know that ‘a body at rest stays at rest, a body in motion stays in motion’ thanks to Newton’s Laws of Motion, and we are no exception!  Getting the gusto to do just one thing differently when you’ve been stuck in your ways is tough, but it gets easier once you get a little momentum going.  SO much easier. 

One of my favorite quotes is ‘if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.’  So true!  If you want a better life for yourself, a more positive way to look at things, a more supportive system of friends in your life, decide this week to take a step!

I am going to share three different steps I have taken in three different categories in my life that have led to big changes in the long run.  There are clearly infinite things you can decide to do, but here’s my contribution to get your ball rolling.

Finances:  Two years ago I decided to get more serious about living below my means, eliminating debt, and creating a better monthly cash flow.  I started with the simple intention for one day to not use my credit cards.  That’s it.  One day not using credit.  Then the second day I had the same intention.  I did that for a while and then I set another intention in place – to pay at least some extra money down on a credit account every other week.  Even if it’s only $5.  Now two years later, I am extremely happy to share that I paid of my last remaining credit card debt today.  My initial step was so incredibly small, and now here I sit with the amazing feeling of knowing my credit accounts are all at $0.00!  Those small steps over time add up to significance.

Writing:  I have loved writing since I was a kid, and even graduated from UW Madison with an English degree.  I absolutely enjoy the writing experience, but never felt comfortable sharing it with people.  I felt really comfortable writing notes to friends, or lengthy letters to my old military boyfriend in my early 20’s, but the idea of putting my thoughts out there for multiple people scared the living shit out of me!  No joke.  Five years ago I decided to start my first blogging project, and I only told maybe 5 people.  I did a few entries before my fear of people’s judgement overrode my desire to get my writing out in a public space.  A little over a year later I did another blogging project under a different name and successfully attracted readers from across the globe! And as you know now, I have this current project which originally started as a running specific venture, but has been re-worked into a way to share my journey to Level Up in every facet of my life.  I know that at some point in my future I want to publish a book. I don’t know what it will be about, or how I’ll do it, but I do know that if I keep taking steps towards that, I’ll get there eventually.  You don’t have to know every step of how to get somewhere you want to be, you only need to figure out your next step.

Public Speaking:  Now we’re talking not just fear, but an all-out phobia.  Ever since as far as I can remember, I was petrified of speaking in front of people.  If I was in a choral concert, standing on the risers amidst all my classmates I was fine – I’d mouth the words like half my classmates and blend in like a chameleon.  But push me to the front of the room, standing at a podium with notecards and I’d lose it.  I wouldn’t feel butterflies in my stomach, I’d feel a flock of angry pelicans!   We’re talking full body shaking, ringing in the ears, heart pounding out of my chest, and mental paralysis.  It was TERRIBLE.  I made my first attempt to tackle this phobia my sophomore year of high school.  At the time Comedy Sportz was popular, and my good friend’s other brother invited me to join.  I took a leap of faith and joined, and no matter how much I’d practice, I’d throw up before each performance.  I’d lose multiple nights of sleep, be sick, and damn near give myself a heart attack, but I did it.  I was facing my fear, but I didn’t feel it dissipating.  Then in college I took an Argumentation and Debate class my senior year, only to bomb miserably in my final.  And when I say I bombed, it was BAD.  A classmate literally stopped me and asked me to sit in a chair. I was shaking so much he was afraid I was going to fall!  Then in April of 2014 I decided to join Toastmasters International.  I hold myself accountable to present something there roughly once a month, and I am SO happy to say I can get up in front of a room and present something without completely wanting to throw myself out the window!  I’m still a long ways off from commanding a room at TedX, but I’ll get there.  I know I’ll get there because I’ll keep taking action.

 

It all started with a single step! And as you can see, I fell flat sometimes too.  But in every case I dusted myself off and launched into action again.  That’s the beauty of this – just moving forward in some way, even if it doesn’t end up ‘successful’ in the general sense, doesn’t mean it was wasted effort.  It is all a chance to practice, and you can always change your mind, refine your direction, or just adjust your sails.

Thanks for all the awesome feedback on this series - it's made it an incredibly fun process, and I love that some of you felt inspired to share with me the steps you are putting into action.  We all have the power to author our own lives and I light up whenever I hear anyone tell me their story of how they're doing just that.  So THANK YOU.  

What’s coming up next…..  

I’ll be posting some entries over the upcoming four weeks about a couple races I have coming up. I decided last minute to jump into a Ragnar Relay team that needed someone to fill the shoes of a member who dropped out, so now I’m basically trying to whip myself into marathon shape over only four and a half weeks!   (Yes I’m super tired and eating everything in sight – it will be worth it though!) I also have a half marathon two weeks after that, then it’s Italian vacation time!! I’ll be doing regular posts from Italy so you can follow along with where I am and can laugh along with me at the situations I am sure to get myself into while driving through Northern Italy with only a loose itinerary for a game plan.  Ciao! J

I couldn't have said it better myself.