Forming positive habits

Last night my women's group had a great meeting.  We talked about habits and positive routines, a very timely topic for me!  I haven't been getting into the best habits these past several months.  It's just too easy to lounge around the house rather than do something productive, as bad for my mental state as that is.  But lo!  After hearing what my friend A had to say as presenter, and talking to the ladies last night, I found that there's hope even for the laziest among us!  (And by that I mean yours truly.)

Have you heard of flylady.net?  A introduced me to it a while back and the website is full of great tips for easily starting and maintaining a housekeeping routine.  The goal is never to have to do Spring cleaning again, because you spend a little bit of time each day maintaining various areas of your home.  But it starts you off easy:  Step 1 is simply to shine your sink.  The site suggests adding one thing a day for 31 days, but I'm going even slower, knowing that I need more time to make such a big change for myself.  I'm shining my sink and doing all the dishes every day for 2 weeks before moving on to the next step.  The cool thing I've noticed though, is that by keeping my kitchen sink clean I'm a lot more motivated to get other stuff done too.  (But even on those days I'm not feeling so motivated, at least I know the only thing I'm requiring myself to do is shine that damn sink!)  I find myself finishing all the laundry instead of giving up after folding one or two loads, and even picking up on projects I'd left unfinished weeks and weeks ago (today, for example, I finally waxed and contact-papered the drawers in my linen closet).

In addition to starting a housekeeping routine, I'm also attempting committed to start making weekly meal plans.  I found a great article on organizedhome.com that outlines how to do such a mysterious and complicated-sounding thing.  Seriously, I had no idea where to even start since I'm not much of a cook and I hate grocery shopping, but after reading it I feel like I might actually be able to start planning menus for me and the hubs.  Finally, we can start eating more healthily and stop wasting so much food!

The third thing I'm trying to change for myself is to use more positive self-talk.  I've noticed that my once charming and humorous habit of self-deprication has turned particularly nasty and is really starting to get me down.  I beat myself up over the slightest things I've done or said or didn't do or say.  This does not make for a sparkling, confident person, and dammit, I want to be the sparkling, confident person I once was!  That said, I'm giving myself the requisite 21 days to allow my new routines to become habit, and no berating myself for missing a day because my cramps left me feeling too miserable to do the dishes (aherm, yesterday...).

I'm hoping all this will help me be better prepared to become the small business owner I dream of and am working on becoming.  And I'm thinking it'll also help me be a more content and happy me!