June 18th, 2012 Could a Small Change Help You to Arrive on Time?
Sometimes a simple, small change can have a big impact on an outcome. Recently, I found that in the tug of war between my to-do list and my getting to places on time, the to-do list was winning. I was continually trying to squeeze in one last task before I left for an appointment. Inevitably, I would have to scramble in order to barely arrive on time, or even a moment late. That was creating a lot of stress.
I don’t like the stress of hurrying to get somewhere on time. I’d rather be calm and composed, able to take my time on the trip to my appointment, maybe enjoy the scenery or listen to music or a program. However, the new approaches I was trying were not working. Most trips to an appointment were still pretty harried.
One day, without realizing the significance, I made a small change that made all the difference. About 45 minutes before I needed to leave, I paused my work on my task, got completely ready to go and then came back and continued work on my task until it was time to go. Being able to put my work away and simply get up, gather my purse (which I had already laid out), and walk out the door changed the whole atmosphere and timing. Apparently I had been trying to fool myself about how long it took me to get ready to go somewhere and had developed the habit of waiting too long to stop my task and get ready to go. By getting ready early, the amount of time I took to get ready was already set. With that one change, everything else was pretty much under control.
The significance is that I didn’t quite realize that I really only needed to fix one piece of the issue. In my mind, it seemed like I needed a complete life re-do, a system to better manage my to-do list, …. and hey, maybe even intense psychotherapy to help me analyze and deal with all the Freudian reasons for starting to barely make my appointments on time.
It just took accidentally changing one relatively small step. Getting ready to go early made everything else shift into a more manageable place.
This concept has broader uses for us. What other areas of your life seem chaotic, overwhelming, baffling? Experiment with making one shift at a time … maybe you just need to shift one unexpected thing and you will find everything else clicking into a more manageable place.
Funny how much can be learned by accident, isn’t it?
With love and peace,
Patti
Related article at SimpleLifeCorp.com You’re Late! How to Arrive on Time
