I sat down after my morning walk / shuffle to catch my breath and have a minute. I looked across to the State forest opposiute our house - nothing new - but this time I noticed the beautiful gum tree that stands tall and strong there with its perfect branches and bright green leaves. It is starting to get taken over by an athol pine and a pine tree. The Athol pine is now half the size of the 25 metre tall gum. I couldn't help but wonder how things will change in the years to come if nothing is done about the non native trees. Will the gum tree hold its strength? - I doubt it. Will the koalas come so much? - I doubt it. And with this, my thinking moved to the fact that small things do matter. Everyday we are surrounded by small things that require our attention and if we don't pause and give this attention then these small things grow and have the power to take over or at least change our day / life / relationships etc in such a way that it feels like it is almost impossible to regain the strength, vision, fun / love etc that we once had or indeed want. So how do we take care of these small things?
1. Know what your small things are...
Take a moment to really think about and get a handle on what the small things are in your life right now, that you know if you took care of them would make a difference to you now and importantly in the future as well. For me it is things like putting the clothes away after folding them, returning phone calls, spraying the weeds in the garden, remembering firends birthdays and staying in touch and the BIG one is setting up and maintaining my online presence. Write down your small things and choose one to work on today.
2. Keep the big picture in focus.....
Many of us spend our lives focussing on the here and now and being busy. How many times do you ask someone how they are and they respond with something like as busy as ever etc. You can be sure they are. The trick here is to know which small things are important and to deal with these as you go rather than allowing them to add up / take over / overwhelm etc.
3. Set routines.....
From our very first hours in this world we began to set routines out of survival. They served us well seeing us fed, clothed and changed etc when needed. And so the same applies now, it's just that sometimes we forget to set the routines. And the best part is that you can support others around you in your family, in your work team, in your business etc to set and stick to routines. Routines are what helps us brush our teeth everyday, so apply this to small things in your life and hey presto! the small things will be taken care of in no time. I have a friend who has the tidiest house, I asked her for her strategy. She said everytime she leaves a room she has a quick look around to see if anything needs tidying. I'm still working on this one, but everyday we do 5 min clean ups on a room that needs it and this works well.
4. Do one thing at a time ......
It is so easy to get overwhelmed by all the things you need to do, albeit them big / small, urgent/non urgent or important / not important. Keeping your big picture for the next hour / day, this year or life, taking care of one thing at a time will see you get there faster and have fun along the way. As Richard Carlson says in his book, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff..... and it's all small stuff, "When you do too many things at once, it's impossible to be present - moment oriented. Thus you not only lose out on much of the potential enjoyment of what you are doing, but you also become far less focussed and effective."
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