MAKING AND ACHIEVING GOALS #52 STORIES OF ME (week 4)

QUESTION:  WHAT WOULD YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO LEARN ABOUT MAKING AND ACHIEVING GOALS FROM YOUR EXAMPLE?

        
First off,  A CONFESSION:  I AM LAZY!




I think I might have been born lazy, or maybe it just happened because I was the youngest and most-doted-on sibling with seven older sisters who spoiled me rotten.

Because I was the baby and very much younger that most of them, they did the chores, they did the holiday meal banquets with my mother, and most of them reminded me OFTEN that I WAS the baby.  I didn't have to worry about doing anything but sitting there watching them as the family's work got taken care of.

Oh, I was good at my homework, but as I got older and really had to bring school work home I usually procrastinated until just about bedtime before I did it, and then stayed up late to finish because I NEVER went to school with an uncompleted assignment.  My major papers were always done at the last minute, and even though I got A's on most of them, I always secretly wondered how much better they would have been if I had just begun a little sooner and been able to develop that terrific kernel of an idea I had.

My mother tried sooo hard to help me get over that huge hurdle in my life--laziness.  Mostly with my daily piano practice which lasted an hour.  She would encourage, cajole, beg,  and plead for me to do my piano practicing early in the day so I could have the rest of the day FREE and not have that hanging over my head.  Same with my daily chores--which were NOT hard, just annoying because I would rather be reading a book. 

Oh, I always had a clean bedroom.  The obsession for being tidy with everything in its place far outweighed my laziness in that respect.  Even when I was in college.  I was the one who made sure that the "Duty Wheel" was operating and our apartment had been cleaned and always looked fresh and welcoming--at least in the communal space of the living room and kitchen.  I didn't like it that the other girls' rooms were a pig sty.  As long as mine didn't, okay by me.

Sometimes when we had a particular nasty job to do around the house, my mother would suggest that we make a game of it.  There was a popular television show at the time called--believe it or not!--BEAT THE CLOCK!.  I loved to watch it, and see all the crazy stunts that had to be done in a certain amount of seconds.  That was fun to have my mother turn on the kitchen timer and see if we could BEAT THE CLOCK!  It kind of stuck and, unbelievably, I still do it for myself now and then.   (Currently I am organizing the basement after taking all the Nativity sets downstairs for another couple of years of storage, and that one hour timer makes its way right downstairs with me. The sad part is there are some days I turn the clock to the 60 minute mark OVER AND OVER AND OVER yet it seems like there is little progress in what I have done so far.)  I tried this little "game" with my kids.  It usually went over pretty well with them--and there was always the "Bribe Basket" at the end for their reward.  However, I have one child who told me that she would NEVER use the timer on her kids--she HATED it!  

                                  

Then I graduated from high school.  My mother begged me to complete some of the projects I had started over the years and never finished--except for my Primary Home Builders' projects each year which I had to complete in order to graduate from Primary.  (They were a cross stitch sampler (now framed and hanging in my family room) when I was a Lark, a crocheted doily when I was a Bluebird, and a knitted hot pad when I was a Seagull.) 

The rest like an iron stool which I was supposed to weave with wicker ropes--whatever you call them!--I hurriedly put together or arranged more neatly in my closet to make them LOOK finished.  Then I took off for BYU, with the stool in my car to personalize my apartment.  After college graduation I took off for Denver--still with that stool, met Ross a couple of weeks later, got married the next year, and in no time at all had a baby and a full-time job as wife and homemaker.  

Those first few months after Harold was born, I had good intentions of getting things done on a regular basis.  But, it seemed so overwhelming!  I am not sure when I hit upon the idea of managing my time better.  Was it a Relief Society lesson?  Was it the momentous occasion in my life when Daryl Hoole came as a guest speaker at a Stake Relief Society event?  Who knows....so many years have passed since those early days when I had no plan and couldn't seem to get around my own laziness, though I desperately wanted to be productive.  It seems that I would let any little thing distract me from the job at hand.  

Oh, I wasn't a slob.  And you might have even thought I was pretty good at getting things done.

Then I began writing TO DO lists and found out I loved to check items off.  It was like having a star chart of my own!

Well, over time the daily repetition of items to be done gradually turned into a routine--one that I was afraid to break because I imagined that lazy dark angel would perch on my shoulder once again.  In fact, you might have seen me as rigid and unable to adapt.  Everything just simply HAD to be done--everyday.  No excuses.

Actually there was a lot of sense in that, as well.  Eight bodies, 16 feet, and everything that went with  that can cause  a lot of dishevelment in a house.  There had to be structure.  And, there was.  Bottom line:  I was able to accomplish a whole lot that needed to be done when I set goals and saw myself through to the finish.


  
When the kids wanted to achieve certain goals we often made a "meter".  For example when Harold wanted to earn money for a camera, we made a CAMER-A-meter.  Sometimes the meter was more graphic to tell a story: as in the time Ross promised Brice a trip to Burger King in Sweden (THAT was huge!) if he improved in one of his school subjects that was below par.  Ross made a little poster with the picture of a roller coaster on it.  The roller coaster car was what marked the progress as it chugged up the track to the top of the hill--and then DOWN to the prize.  Very clever!


So, after that "William Makepeace Thackeray side bar, here is what I would hope my kids learned from watching me (and my helping them) make and achieve goals.

STAR CHARTS are great tools. 

"TIMERS" make a job a game when you compete with the BELL.

"CHECK LISTS" can force a focus on the priorities as long as it's purposeful and not just "checking it off".

So are "METERS"  to measure incremental progress.


Today Louis didn't have to leave for work until much later.  And I was waiting for a call from the Crew Desk for an assignment.  So....I didn't get up either and jump on the "let's get that job done" bandwagon.  Instead, we had a good gospel discussion, planned a little two-day trip we'd like to take on my next days off, and went to Pinocchio's for a Valentine lunch treat.

You know what they say:  "All work and no play...."  But I burned FIVE hours I'll never get back!