New Blog new me?
Doubtfully.
But it's all good, who really wants a "new me" when you can simply have an "improved me". We do not have to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and I think that's just what some people try to do when they realise they have to change! Key word... CHANGE. Not just throw who you were into the fire and start from scratch... but simply just pare back. Make the assessment. Keep the strengths, the positives, the things you love, you know, the good stuff. The rest? Work in progress. In order to do better and be better, you do not have to re-invent yourself. Rather, you need to start being the best you that you can be. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Different things that make them tick, sigh, move or slump. "Know thyself" comes across as a bit of an up yourself quote at first glance, however their is merit in those two words. Knowing yourself enough to know what to be content and happy with and what you know needs vast improvement, is a pretty crucial step to climbing the rungs of the life-progress ladder.
Take me for example.
Strengths:
Extremely Confident
Creative
Great with kids
Great with words
Great at making things pretty
Great sense of humour
loving
prayerful
funny (so im told...)
Weaknesses:
Cheese
Somewhat easily offended
Unorganised by nature
unfit
unmotivated to get fit
easily distracted
skips from one thing to the next
bad at keeping my mouth shut
forgetful
So as you can see, off the top of my head I am well able to list the first things that come to mind that are both good and bad. Can you do that? Try! Some of us can list 5 million things we dont like about ourselves, however that is not a weakness. "My big nose" or "my weird cough" or "I cant sing".... none of those things are weaknesses. None of those, if improved or changed, would make your life particularly better by means of being a better person or more productive in any way shape or form. Stop beating up on yourself and start looking at real weaknesses. CHARACTER weaknesses which can be grown and changed and improved and will in turn improve your quality of life, your relationships, your state of mind, your everything. So,
with that in mind, now, what are your strengths and weaknesses? Give yourself some credit where credit is due. Pat yourself on the back, and now, look at some weaknesses and give yourself a hug and remember that the list may be long, but your life journey is longer. You have time, resources and ability to do what needs to be done!!
This is where this blog comes in for me personally.
In the beginning of 2015 I came to the painful but honest truth that...
I lack self discipline.
Not only that, it was controlling my life.
What do I mean by lacking self discipline? I mean most areas of my life were overrun with my tendancy towards my weaknesses and not taking control of them. Being unorganised, easily distracted, forgetful and so on, was affecting my life. It was causing me to not be the best wife, mother, homemaker, businesswoman, friend and all round person I could potentially be. What was the changing factor?
Well, I stopped blaming circumstances...and others, and started facing the facts that I just needed to plain and outright admit to myself that I lacked self discipline and that this needed to change If I ever wanted my life to change.
Now don't get me wrong... life was still good. I am happily married, I love my home, my kids, my job, my life. I am a Christian, and with that comes a certain joy and contentment that is just not explainable, you can only know it by experiencing it for yourself. However, although I was generally very happy with my life, I was not happy with myself. You see, I had enough of being typical Terri-lee... the one who would always be late (sure, 10 mins max, but lets face it, late). The one who would when we went out would forget something that really really inconvenienced either me, my hubby or the day in general. The one who just wouldn't go to bed on time and payed for it in extreme fatigue that affected my productivity every single day. The one who would make excuses for silly mistakes I would make which really would come down to not being careful enough or not being organised. The one who would blame something, or someone else, whenever I wasn't doing life like a grown up lady and instead was still in teenage-mode not taking responsibility.
Please at this point, don't think I have been completely useless and terrible at life. This is not the case. Like I said I have my strengths, and because of my personality type, my strengths really show alot. It is only when you REALLY get to know me that you realise my many weaknesses (and I think thats the same for everyone. We are all good at hiding and pretending). Just at the start of this journey I had a friend, who has known me for about a year so far, say something that made me almost spit out my tea..
"I always thought you were super organised! You seem to have it all together. The kids are always well presented, you always have their food and drink packed and ready to distribute. You never have a hair out of place, you know, organised and all. Wish I was like that".
....... wow. My immediate response was "NO!!!! The kids look well presented but it was chaos in my home getting them to that point. In fact, one of them cried it out today over having to have a ponytail, which she only had to have because I didnt make enough time to do her hair properly and had to rush the whole process and rush her and upset her unnecessarily instead of just making sure I was organised enough to fit a simple hair brushing in. Yeh, they always have food and drink, thats something I have managed not to forget due to sheer need. However just yesterday I totally forgot my sons blankie AND dummy (both his lifeline when he is really tired) when we had to spend the entire day out, resulting in many many tears and an exhausted boy and a frazzled, silently enraged mother until we got home (early coz nobody was in the mood after all that). Never have a hair out of place? Only because it is always slicked back stiffly like a rigid ballerina in one minute flat so I dont look like a homeless gollywog hosting a birdnest on top. Organised? BARELY!"
My friend laughed... but also had this "for real?!" look in her eyes that made me stop and think...
Are we all just faking it? Coz I thought SHE was organised and had it all together and was dedicatedly self disciplined too and it turns out...shes not... not by a longshot. Surely, out there, there must be some amazeballs species of women who actually really and truly do have it all together. Who I can look up to and be mentored by and so on.
Do you know what I found out?
Strengths and weaknesses.
they abound in every persons life. Even the most organised, pristine, tidy, productive, smiley, amazing, "what is she on to make her so fantastic at life?" Kind of person has major weaknesses in areas you don't know about. We need each other. Desperately. We need to band together. To encourage, inspire, equip and be real with one another. We can all improve in our weaknesses and even make some of them strengths. But we all are naturally inclined towards one thing or the other with certain strengths too.
For example, I am super good at organising rooms/drawers etc. If I put my mind to it and stick to it, I can make almost any space, useful and neat and much better than it was before. However, I struggle with keeping up with normal house duties. Routine is a real difficulty for me. Being disciplined enough to sit and do a long term project, is something I find hard. However I have a friend who has a degree in event management and she can plan stuff, big stuff, and make amazing things happen and stick to a routine... yet her homes cupboards are terrifying. Her space in her house is not being utilised well at all and she doesnt "have it" to change that. Where I am weak she is incredibly strong. And where I am strong, she needs my help/advice and ideas. We don't DO each others dirty work, not at all.. but we do give each other tips, ideas, encouragement, information and inspiration to motivate and educate each other to come to a point in our weakness where we can be efficient enough to get by. Isn't that great?
This is what I want this blog to become.
I want it to be a place where I share my own personal journey to a better, more organised, more productive me. I want to show you the downs and ups. I want you to teach me, I want to teach you. I want to enjoy the journey. I want to, with you, see how far ive come and how far I can go and if I can help anyone else along the way and turn this into something totally beautiful, then this is all a major win!
The posts will probably be ever changing. You might find an entire month is just full of planner talk. Then another month I will shift to home organisation projects, then I will have a baby and talk about kid routines... So dont expect this blog to always be the same. Yet in saying that, I want you to know, the entire point of the whole thing is to help you, and for you to help me just by reading. I feel accountable having to come here and blog about how I'm doing and what I am doing. And I so pray and hope that my adventure helps you to get motivated too and gives you some fantastic ideas and inspiration along the way.
This is a place where judgement, beating oneself up, "I cant" and "i'll never change" gets left at the door, and we can all step into a place of grace, realistically assessing our progress, saying "maybe I can!" and "Look...hey... I AM changing!" even if just a teensy bit every day.
Please join me in my journey of growing in Character, self discipline and know-how, and together...
LET'S GET ORGANISED!
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