It’s funny how easily we can be distracted by simple thoughts when we’re afraid to continue with something or even begin something. It’s so much easier to tell ourselves that we’ll get to it eventually – and genuinely believe that we will – but we end up sweeping it under the rug.

Getting things done

Despite my inability to get things done without at least a little procrastination at some point during the project, my view on starting and finishing things fall in line with something Pablo Picasso once said: “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

You may delay, but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin

In fact, I’m sure most of us feel this way. We all understand the importance of completing a task and we all understand that that task most likely won’t be completed unless we take the time to complete it.

Rarely do we come home to find an essay we’ve been putting off magically completed. Rarely do we go to work to discover that we have nothing to do because it’s already been done for us. Rarely does the great work get written without the writer.

Historically procrastination has been viewed as a negative thing, both theologically and societally. Though, at some points in history (particularly the aristocratically driven French culture of the 17th and 18th centuries) not doing things was considered the height of gentlemanly “pursuits.”

Excuses in All the Wrong Places

We procrastinators look for excuses for not doing things as often as we possibly can. These excuses range from the simplistic (i.e. “I can’t make all of these party invitations right now because I’m sick”) to the insane (i.e. “I can’t write this report that may cost me my job because I have to play with my cats all day”).

The simple fact of the matter is that whether the task is easy and unimportant or complex and very important, we usually have the time to do it or, at the very least, the ability to make the time to do it.

Stop psyching yourself out by convincing yourself that you can’t run because you don’t have the right kind of shoes or that you don’t have enough time in the day to work on that book you’ve always wanted to write. Chances are there’s a shoe store right down the street. Chances are that the reason you don’t have enough time in the day is because you spend a good chunk of it watching reruns of Friends or catching up on Game of Thrones.

So ask yourself what’s more important: What happened to Tyrion this week on my favorite show? Or…where could I be if I’d sit down to write that book?

You see, excuses are just that: excuses. It is defined as “to release from an obligation or duty.” Excuses were created to take the blame of not doing something or doing something wrong and removing it from ourselves.

We have more control over our lives than many of us like to believe and that is why we need to take the time to think and reason out how we can do things rather than stubbornly giving them up.

It’s about time we became a little more stubborn about persevering and a little less obstinate about opting out.

Some of my favorite inspirational stories

Francis O’Dea – You’ve probably never heard of Francis O’Dea but if you live in Canada, you’re probably very familiar with the coffee house company, “Second Cup”.

Francis grew up in Toronto, was sexually abused at age 13 and around that time starting drinking. Life quickly went downhill and before long he was homeless. He had to beg for change in order to survive. For 6 months he lived on the streets with no clue as to what he wanted to do or how to change his life. Today, Francis O’Dea is a multi millionaire. As he says,

One year I was broke, the next year I was a millionaire.

He changed his life by focusing on what he wanted. He got a job and slowly started to turn his life around.

Four years later he opened a little coffee shop and called it “Second Cup”. Second Cup is now one of the largest coffee shop chains in Canada.

• Wayne Gretzky
  Wayne Gretzky has been quoted as saying, “It’s kind of ironic when I broke in at 17, I was told I was too small, too slow and I wouldn’t make the NHL.” He’s now recognized as one of the greatest hockey players ever.
• George Lucas
  George Lucas spent four years sending the script for Star Wars around to the various studios and racking up numerous rejections in the process. Universal Studios and United Artist both both turned him down. Finally an executive from 20th Century Fox who had seen his American Graffiti film and had been impressed by that decided to give him a chance with his Star Wars. The film was made for $11 million dollars and was released in 1977. Since then the original Star Wars trilogy has grossed over 2.4 billion dollars. If he’d let his negative inner voice get to him he would never have ended up having the highest grossing film of all time.
• Einstein
  Was considered an “unteachable” fool by his early teachers.
• Michael Jordan
  Was cut from his high school basketball team. Michael Jordan quote, “I’ve failed over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”
• Bob Parsons
  Founder and CEO of GoDaddy.com. He had a blog posting one time where he spoke about what he overcame in the pursuit of his dreams. Unfortunately, he’s taken it down now but from reading that posting, I learned he definitely wasn’t an overnight success and experienced a lot of failure on the way. But, he kept his vision in his mind at all times and said, “I spent very little time looking back or feeling sorry for myself.” Another awesome quote from the blog posting was, “Quitting is easy. The easiest thing to do in the world is to quit and give up on your dreams (and quite frankly, that’s what all the non-risk takers want you to do).”It’s too bad he took his blog posting down. It was a good one. Anyway, instead, you can read his 16 Rules which has some pretty good advice for all of us.
• Beethoven
  Beethoven’s music teacher told him he was a hopeless composer.
• Colonel Sanders (creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken)
  Was told “No” by over a thousand restaurants for more than a year while he lived in his car trying to sell his chicken recipe.
• Thomas Edison
  I’m sure you’ve heard of Thomas Edison and all the inventions he created. He’s actually known as one of the most prolific inventors in history holding 1,093 U.S. patents as well as a lot of patents in the UK, France and Germany. When Thomas was 4 he was sent home from school with a note. The note told his mother that he was to remove his son from school because he was “too stupid to learn”. Thomas’ mother decided to teach him herself. He only had 3 months of formal schooling yet went on to create numerous inventions like the phonograph. He was also partially deaf in one ear. There is some controversy as to what he invented and what Nikola Tesla invented, (See more info at this link: Nikola Tesla) but he still managed to be successful even with the lack of support from the formal school system.
• Walt Disney
  Was turned down by over a hundred banks when he tried to get funding to develop Disneyland. He was also fired from his job at a newspaper for “lacking ideas”. He also had several bankruptcies before he was able to develop Disneyland.

Know Any More Inspirational Stories?

What are your favorite inspirational stories? If you have some or even one, send it to me via my contact form. I’d love to keep adding to the list.

We often get stuck in the idea of having to make some huge change in our lives, and it seems overwhelming so we don’t do anything. We just wish, wait and hope. Or we may just be stuck in a very comfortable routine. The trick is to realize that the force of inertia (the tendency of bodies at rest to stay at rest) will keep you exactly where you are unless you do something. That something doesn’t even have to be related to what you want.

You’ve probably heard of taking a big goal and chunking it down into baby steps. This is a great idea, but sometimes we don’t even know where to begin, what baby step to take. What you may not realize is that any small change leads to more change. Just do something different.

1. Wear red socks instead of navy socks.
2. Take a different route to work.
3. Eat at a different restaurant.
4. Drink tea instead of coffee.

Any change will do. This works because it gets you unstuck and into the change mode. The momentum will get you going on a roll, and before you know it, you’ll be making bigger and bigger changes relatively effortlessly. This technique enables you to skip the hard part of mustering up enough motivation, willpower, or courage to tackle a big goal, project or change.

For more, read Talane’s Top Ten Tips for Getting Unstuck and Get Motivated.

I’ve included this absolutely beautiful and inspiring short video about the impact of adding wolves to Yellowstone National Park, demonstrating the powerful impact of small changes.

That looks amazing, I wish I could do that!
Wow, you are so organized, can you come to my house and do that for me?
I would love to food prep but don’t know where to start…
I tried to prep my food and got so overwhelmed I quit!

These comments, and others like them, made me think. I want you (my reader) to read the posts I write and think to yourself “I can do this”. I do not want you to feel overwhelmed or that it’s too out of reach. BELIEVE ME if you knew me in “real life” you would say “Dang, if Tammy can do it then I can definitely do this”. Not kidding! Some of my closest friends wonder how I even tie my own shoelaces some days. But one of my favorite quotes is “It never gets easier, you only get better”. This is so true. The more I work at something the “easier” it gets. Not because the task itself got easier but because I got better. I evolved. The person I am today with food prep is not the person I was 4 years ago just starting out.

If I were to give weekly food prep guidelines to the “just starting out” Tammy this is what they would be…

Don’t try to prep it all!

First and foremost, when starting out, don’t try and make ahead your entire weekly menu plan. This will completely overwhelm you – it can still overwhelm me. Start slow. The first week prep 1 or 2 recipes ahead of time and as you get comfortable with the process you can prep more.

Don’t try new recipes

When starting out with food prep it is best to stick with recipes you already know. This way you are confident in the outcome of the recipe and the only thing you need to focus on is preparing it ahead of time. This is the way I started with my food prep. I took recipes that I made often, like taco meat and red clam sauce, and prepared them ahead of time and then stored in the refrigerator and sometimes freezer. I was able to focus on what worked, what didn’t, and most importantly it allowed me to experience the benefits of having food ready. I know taco meat and clam sauce is easy to make but I still found having these meals made ahead of time to be extremely beneficial.

Choose which recipe(s), if made ahead of time, would make the biggest difference in your week

This is huge! If you are short on time or don’t have the energy to prepare a lot of food then prioritize your meals. Which recipe, if made ahead of time, is going to make your week easier? If you are rushing around every morning and always running out of time for a healthy breakfast then maybe focus on preparing breakfast sandwiches or steel cut oats. If dinnertime brings you the most stress then put together some meal starters or prep ingredients for a couple slow cooker recipes. If you are always running to the vending machine at 3:00pm then put together some veggie packs or bags of almonds. What is going to make it easier for you to eat healthier during the week?

When I was working out of the house having lunch prepared was huge. If I didn’t I was going to the vending machines or cafeteria for sure. You can view all my mason jar salad recipes here.