Monday, August 2, 2010

Motivational Monday #13 - Small Things Staying Small

I think this world is made up of two things. (Well at least for the purposes of this blog.) There are the small things, and the big things.  Big things are things we see on the news.  They include world peace (which we have stopped talking about during the last 9 years of war...), world hunger, the national debt, health care, immigration, education funding, the crime rate, and what the latest celebrity ate for lunch.

It seems to me that most of us can't do much about the big things.

Then there are small things.  This category includes your job, your grocery list, your household to do list, your family gatherings and your friendly outings.

The small things are well under our control.

Now before I get a ton of frustrated email, I know each of us can help with the big things, but the big things are not directly under our control.  We are a part of them, but they are bigger than we are.

So the real question is, what do you do about the small things in life?  In my experience, it is hard to keep even the small things in perspective.  They become all consuming and overwhelming without much effort on our part at all.

Most of my day is spent on the small things.  If you look at my to do list you will find it is not very exciting.  I clean a lot of bathrooms, I scrub a lot of counters and I fix a lot of meals.  This doesn't seem like too much on the surface, but after a while my field of vision narrows until those bathrooms and counters are all I can see. It doesn't take long for me to be overwhelmed by what started out as a small thing.

So how do I keep the small things in perspective?  How do I give the appropriate amount of concern to the activities in my life?  How do you?

That is a grand question.  I wish I had an amazing answer for you.  In my life the small things take over all the time.  Maybe you have a better method of control?

The motivation for today is to be aware of the small things in your life.  After becoming aware of them, take stock of their importance.  Do you give the things in your life the correct level of attention?  Do you focus on the important items and keep perspective?

Once you have taken an inventory it will be easier to put things back where they belong.  As for me, I promise to give the bathrooms and the counters only the attention they deserve, and nothing more.  Today they will be small things.

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