🐥🐥🐥 I DON’T HAVE DUCKS… AND I DON’T HAVE A ROW. BUT I DO HAVE SQUIRRELS AND THEY ARE EVERYWHERE 🐿🐿🐿 How to Jump Start Your “Non-Start”

For the past three plus years I have been posting “Daily Recovery Inspiration” posts on the Nicklaus Counseling Center, S.C.’s Facebook page. I started doing this as a way to encourage others on their healing, growth, and recovery journeys. What I ended up discovering is how often the prescheduled posts were just what I needed to hear or when I needed a chuckle. This is exactly what happened last week when this came on our Facebook page feed.

🐥🐥 I don’t have ducks… and I don’t have a row. But I have squirrels 🐿 and they’re everywhere! 🐿🐿🐿

Have you ever known that you want to do something, let’s say…

exercising, cutting back on sweets, drinking more water, cutting out pop (or soda depending on the vernacular of your choice 😊)… You can fill in your particular goal.

Lately I have been finding myself excited about so many things that I began struggling to focus. And as a result I look and sound just like Joey does so often in “Friends”. I can hear his voice in my head and mine sounds far too similar. 🤣

Let me share an example. When I sit down to write a blog post, two things show up on my screen.

Add title and

Start writing…

Should be simple right? But what has happened over the last number of days is that my thoughts actually get in my own way!

I begin thinking, “I should pick up where I left off on my last post. Or should I talk about adapting during Covid or…??? (insert any number of topics).

And then maybe it turns into, “I should go switch the laundry before I do anything else. Maybe it will come to me then…” I think you get the idea and I wonder how many can relate?

After a number of days in a row my frustration grew. Feeling such dissatisfaction was sapping my enthusiasm and my desire to write. And that was not acceptable any longer.

So I’d like to share a tip that can jump start your “Non-Start”.

1. Just start to do “that thing” that you want to do. Follow Nike’s brilliant advertisement call and “Just Do It”.

You might wonder what that looks like. It is getting back to the basics; applying a 🚦Stop Light to your thoughts, literally stop 🛑 and do. Nothing happens when nothing is done.

For me this morning, I literally just put fingers to keyboard and began to write what was coming to mind. By doing that, I started to let the words flow. Because I took action, the ideas began to flow. After going in a few different directions I found my focus and my thoughts came together. No amount of thinking it through the previous days got the creative juices going in my mind like this one simple first step. Just start… and the rest WILL follow.

Let’s take another simple example. I drink entirely too much Diet Mountain Dew. I’d like to change that. I also want to drink more water. I’d like to change that. So instead of just THINKING about it (which I have done mind you) I have just started to DO IT. It’s as simple as that.

My solution? I drink two glasses of water with Lime Doterra essential oil to start my day and I don’t allow myself to drink a Diet Dew unless I drink my water first. And then I repeat these two actions throughout the rest of the day.

By simplifying it down to new action, I feel good about taking this one step toward my goal, then another, then another…

Far too often we spend more time in our heads than we do in the real world. I am working on switching thoughts into action, over and over again.

The blessing of this cognitive shift is that the action fosters empowerment and leads to real change.

What have you been talking about doing for some time now? Pick one that you want to do and just start doing it.

When you do, pause and appreciate your action. Do not pay attention to the results at this point. They will come. But only if you keep doing it.

And for me? The squirrels have now scattered. 🐿 When they gather again, as they tend to for me, I will be reminded to “get out of my head” and just start doing.

Blessings dear ones ☀️

Christine