So yesterday the scale said I’m 50 pounds overweight.
Again.
And as often happens, I’m eager to do something about it. As long as I can do it all today and be done with it forever.
I’m not at all interested in doing something about it in small, manageable steps every single day for a long while.
This is the point.
Extreme action yields extreme results, but we can’t keep it up for long or forever. And sometimes it’s just the wrong approach. I mean, I could stop eating altogether and quickly lose a pound or three…but a week or two without food and I’d end up in a quiet little coma.
Ew.
Extreme dieting is truly die with a T. Let’s file it under Unsustainable.
Little Bit by Little Bit
Little bits of attention every single day are how I’m going to lose 50 pounds. I’ll shop sensibly, cook with care, and workout with my Wii. And I’ll get a little fitter and a little thinner every day that I do it.
But keeping it up is the tricky bit, right? My interest in healthy eating and exercise typically stutters after three weeks and fizzles out within three months.
Yet I stay fit and thin when I live in a city. City life = walking to work + walking to shop + walking to…everything. So when exercise is part of my normal routine, I invariably shrink into my old cut-offs.
It’s like magic.
Except it’s not.
Little bit by little bit is how all big projects get finished, how all big problems get resolved, how all big dreams get realized, and—as @michelewoodward told me the other day—how we build a legacy. And wrapping it in our daily routine is how to easily keep it going.
But we already knew that. Anything can get done through small, consistent action even when the steps are amazingly, shockingly, absurdly tiny—have you read The Kaizen Way? This is the surest of sure things.
So we know it. But is there some way to help us stick with it?
And please, for the love of Ben & Jerry…can it be fun?!
Well…maybe.
An Extremely Wrong Way to Work
My old way of working was to throw everything I had at a Thing and bang on it until it was finished. I’d forgo sleep, food, friends, and family until I reached the deadline. And while that was fine for small projects, a Big Thing scheduled over weeks or months split my life into extremes…
…too much eating out because I’m too preoccupied to bother with cooking, too few jaunts to my Mom’s, too little snuggling with hubby, too few chatty phone calls with friends, too much grumpiness, too little sleep, too little exercise, too much fatigue, too little fun.
Too. Too. Too.
And so I banished myself from big projects. But I’m realizing the project size wasn’t the problem, it was the way I approached the work. I thought I could overwhelm an overwhelming project if I met it with enough speed and force. It got the work done on time…but at what price?
So let’s file my eXtreme Work Method under Unsustainable, too. No more of that.
The Better Way to Work…Maybe
I do believe there are times when a short, hard push is just the thing. That’s how I got the BBB Radio 1 done from start-to-finish in a few days.
But there are plenty of projects too big to finish in a weekend, and some things are meant to be addressed daily. Like, we could shower and brush our teeth 30 times today, but that won’t really cover our hygiene requirements for the upcoming month.
All that to say: After writing 750words almost every day for three months, I can say for sure that predetermined, measured, daily effort with immediate feedback reallyreallyreally works (for me). It squeezes the rut out of routine and reshapes it into ritual. What Seinfeld said about not breaking the chain is so very, very true.
So I’m gonna massage my work into monthly challenges using Charlie’s planners…they’ll break my big goals into daily tasks with milestones along the way.
And that’s key, because for this way of working to be as effective as 750words, I need 6 ingredients—
- The Big Picture: Why the heck am I doing all this?
A simple one line description does wonders to refocus my head when I’m drowning in details. - Documented Milestones: How far have I come? How much farther to go?
I need to see my progress every single day. A long line of checked boxes is way encouraging. - A Deadline: When will this be over?
Without a unquestionable, definitive end I’ll happily, and ineffectively, tweak it forever. - Camaraderie: Who’s with me…and how are they doing?
I rarely have the urge to be first, but I sure as shit don’t want to come in last. - Pressure: Can a sistah get a little push?
The right amount of pressure is a welcome wind at my back, but too much? I dig my heels in. - Reward: What do I win?
Getting paid, a day off, a new book, a mani-pedi, a special dinner out…all treasured treats.
And also: A little bit of effort every single day.
I hope this works.
And I hope this helps you, too.
Photo credit: Joe Lanman
