betsey: Jane, I love IKEA. Three floors of everything from reasonable sofas to kitchen storage to beds to posters. I love wandering their decorated spaces, the home offices, the bedrooms, the kitchens. You can really pick up ideas. I’m now leaning toward a rich reddish-brown for our cabinets and a creamy countertop with a flecky pattern. And an ogee. Which is a sort of rounded lip on a counter. And brushed-nickel, straight pulls . . .jane: And I love the word "ogee." It sounds so Norwegian, like the word "uff da." We have ogee edges on our kitchen and bathroom countertops; they're much safer.
betsey: I’m really proud that we actually got some things we needed and did some things we’ve been talking about. And talking about. And . . .
Maybe it’s my personality type, which is very high Intuitive on the Myers-Briggs, but I love thinking and dreaming and concocting. That’s all very well, but eventually one has to, well, execute. Git ‘r done.
betsey: But really, I mean put up or shut up. Is this ever an issue with you, the tendency to think and not do?
jane: Yes! I tend to think Big Picture about home improvements and prattle on about everything I want to do, which really overwhelms Rich. No, make that freaks him out, because he starts seeing $$$ fly out the window – and understandably so. But that's the way I process daydreams: I try things on, so to speak, by talking them out. Eventually I arrive at what I really hope we can do first. And I reassure Rich I'm not pushing for Do Everything At Once. Think this would be a good topic for Rich and Fritz to write on. You know, the fritz:rich blog responds!
betsey: We’ve been thinking and talking forever about getting new cushions for our breakfast-room chairs, for example. Some were too expensive; some we just procrastinated till they were no longer available. But we got a set at IKEA (for much less than we would have paid elsewhere). Now I feel virtuous, like I’m on top of things.
jane: Good for you! What do they look like? Show me next time I'm over . . .
betsey: Dark blue, in a nice, slightly rough cotton – so, one thing checked off. And you know, I don’t want to be that person who talks a good game, who’s always “going to” do something. Exercise. Bible reading. For some people I’m acquainted with, looking for a job.
What, in your opinion, does it take to move from thinking to doing?
jane: Hmm, that's a tough one. Let me think about that for a moment. Joking!
When it comes to home improvements, I've found the more choices in which I immerse myself (there have got to be a million paint swatches out there), the more I become immobilized by indecision, overwhelmed by second-guessing. I do much better with a smaller pool of choices. I need a limit and a deadline.
But if you're asking me about how to move from thinking about exercise or Bible reading to actually doing those things, I'm stymied. I've been struggling off and on for years to stop thinking about dieting to dieting. If I knew the secret, I'd bottle it, market it, then retire with Rich to a dream house in Colorado. I do, however, believe it requires deciding this -- whatever it may be -- is something you want or need so badly, you'll make and take the time to “just do it.” As they say when talking about training dogs, the activity has to be a “high value” object.
betsey: Makes sense. Like when I look back at whatever accomplishments I’ve had, they’re in areas I really care about, like work and relationships. Boy, I wish I really loved to exercise. I know! You can come over and help me clean and decorate sometime. That way I can “fool” myself into exercising, since I highly value you and my house. And I’ll do the same for you.
jane: Now that's a strategy! Turning something you dislike doing into something you enjoy so you'll actually do it. I like that (although I can't say I find cleaning fun; decorating, yes!).
betsey: I’d be interested in what some of our blog friends out there have to say on this: how do we get from dreaming to doing?
2 comments:
I recently took on a monster project--revamping the look of our unfinished basement, in attempt to make it a livable space.
I love to paint so I made sure to paint the brick white first. It made it brighter down there and helped me actually want to be down there to dig through stuff anyway.
Still need to get back into the project, you know, get 'r done!
~ Wendy
It seems the only way I ever get anything done is to create very short "to-do" lists. This begins with a big goal (e.g. reading my Bible), which is long term, general and doesn't offer a starting point. Then I choose a smaller goal, say, reading the Apostle Paul's letters. This is still a long-term goal that doesn't offer a starting point. So perhaps I will choose an epistle that has recently captured my attention, maybe one that my pastor has been teaching on (for example, Philippians). Then I look at Philippians to see how long it is and how much time it would take to read through it. It's only four chapters, so I estimate, "OK, I can read this book and it might take about 30 minutes." Then I schedule it: I put it on my calendar for a specific day. Then, on Monday when I sit down to read, I gauge the actual time it took to read with my estimate. I can then choose chunks to read based on how much time I'm willing to commit. At one point, I was reading one chapter of the Bible every day, and I was able to commit to that small goal on a daily basis for a very long time!
To summarize, the only way I can get anything done is to: (1) break the task into "mini-goals," (2) choose a starting point, preferably one that's caught my attention, (3) estimate the time it will take for a one-day goal, (4) schedule it--it helps to write it down, and (5) re-evaluate my daily goal based on the actual time it takes to accomplish it.
Thanks for writing this. I have some overwhelming big goals that I need to break down into doable bits and take my own advice!
Post a Comment