For the next 21 Days I will be participating in Suscipio’s E-book Discussion – 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life by Crystal Paine.

Previous posts…

Day 1: Discipline Is a Choice

This post covers…

Day 2: Discipline Is a Process and Day 3: Start with Small Things

My favorite lines…

From Day 2:  If you want your new habits to take permanent residence in your life, then the change will have to be gradual. Making small changes over time cements new habits in a way that quick, drastic changes cannot.

From Day 3: Remember, moving in the right direction – even at a microscopic rate – is always faster than standing still. Tiny changes can add up to major differences over a long period of time.

My thoughts…

I think this is one of the biggest reasons I’ve failed at previous attempts to make changes in my life. I made all these grand plans and I would eventually lose interest or burn out. What I like about this book is that each day is short and to the point. You get your brief thought-provoking lesson and your inspiration and then you go and complete your assignment. Sometimes it can feel like I’m not really doing much, but her words have been sticking in my head and they come to mind throughout the day. Plus doing a little each day has eliminated the stress I’d be having with all the stuff I need to get done. I can focus on my regular mom duties and not worry that I only have 10-15 minutes to work on my project because that’s all I need to reach my goal today.

My Mega Project…

My big project is to clean and organize my master bedroom, bath & closet.

Monday’s task was to clear off my dresser. I walked into the room and my ADD kicked in. There was junk on the book shelf that needed to be put away, a bed that needed to be made, a basket of laundry on the floor that needed to be folded, carpet that needed to be vacuumed and my brain was going on overload as I moved from one thing to another. (I felt like that dog on the Pixar movie Up who’d randomly lose focus and yell, “Squirrel!”) I literally had to stop and tell myself, “No! Don’t start doing five things at once…and finish none of them. I have one task at hand and I’m going to get it done now.” And I did.

(Excuse the poor photo quality. It was snapped with my phone in poor lighting. It was too late and I was too tired to care. ) 😉

Tuesday’s task was to clear off our blue chair.  My sister was laughing because it sounded funny that one of my tasks was to clear off a chair. I have a terrible habit of coming into my bedroom and placing clothes or other stuff on the chair with the intention of putting it away later. Well, do that a few times and let a few days pass and before you know it, there’s a mountain of junk on my once usable chair! But it is ready for use once more.

Wednesday’s task was to clean up the little reading corner by the blue chair but I was out of the house the majority of the day and when I got home I had a number of things to do and I never got a spare moment to clean it out. So I had to make up the time today. I did 15 minutes in the morning for Wednesday’s task and 15 minutes in the afternoon for today’s task. (I’ll cover today and Fri tomorrow or Sat.) but I did complete that corner of the room, including Brian’s desk, and it looks nice again.

Practical Application

For Day 3 we had to choose one bad habit that I’d like to break. Do you see those messy piles above? Okay now picture matching piles on my desk, on the dining room table, on the corner counter of the kitchen. Yeah, you are getting the idea. (My apologies to those readers who are saying, but I assumed your house was so clean and organized. No, my dear. That was my sister you were thinking about.) Those piles are less than they used to be but still too many. However, for the next 19 days I’m just going to be focusing on one section right now. My desk. It too was filled with piles and paper products and books and other random things that I have no idea how they got there.

This is an old photo but it proves what my desk looks likes at its worst. (Admittedly, it hasn’t looked THAT bad in awhile.)

So I cleared it off again but this time I gave myself a motivation. I had been looking for desk organizers for months but couldn’t find ones that I loved. Then I went to Micheal’s to spend a gift card I had and found this little tray on clearance and the round caddy on sale.

I fixed up my desk and made it look so bright and pretty that I can’t bear to let it get piled up with junk again. So I decided to break my bad habit of letting piles accumulate by first focusing on my desk. Each night for the next 19 days I’ll remove the stuff that doesn’t belong so it is tidy and ready for me the next day to do my morning devotion and go over my planner.

Circle of Friends – Another reason why this 21 Days has been going well for me? Because Jen at Suscipio is leading the pack and offering encouragement as we journey together. On Day 2 she posted a Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Fortitude. Need that! I also want to do 2 practical applications because her commitment to drink more water is something that I too have been trying to do. I like her idea of filling up three large bottles of water in the morning (or night before), putting them in the fridge and drinking one in the morn, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.

I was also excited that my sister is reading the book and will blog about it occasionally. And yesterday my mom asked me to order her a copy so she could read the book too. (Note to self – order mom’s copy!)

Head over Suscipio and see how others are doing on the journey. 🙂

Okay, it’s getting late and I need sleep. Have a blessed night/day!

UPDATE  – Read the next post here.

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