Life by the YARD is Hard…

LANDSCAPING--WHAT A PAIN!!!

Now that spring is here, not having a yard is draining on my family and I.  The kids just want to be outside, and when they do go outside, I'm left with a dirt & sand trail INSIDE!  We finally found a landscaper to get things done and have been doing our best to level, add rock walls, put in a trampoline hole, grade, finish our deck, ETC.

Then came the RAIN.  Our trampoline hole became an unintended swimming pool…full of rainwater and mud that wouldn't drain.  Add that to machinery breaking down of my landscaper, it became a disaster of half done projects.  A DAILY reminder of everything that WASN'T getting done in my life, as each glance out the window instantly disheartened and burdened me.  So silly on the one hand, yet a very real source of discontent and discouragement that seemed to affect everything else, on the other!

I felt stuck.  Interrupted.  Frozen.  At a standstill.  An ominous cloud looming overhead, that halted any other progress because all I could see was that unfinished, problematic, stress-causing pile of DIRT of a yard.  Suddenly it seemed it would NEVER get done!

Have you ever been so caught up in a "moment" of life or in an experience so encompassing, that it affected every other area of your life?  I realized I was drowning in my own mind and needed, wanted, to get out!  Then I came across a simple, yet profound quote:

President Monson's wise counsel of, "Life by the yard is hard; by the inch, it's a cinch", illuminated me!  I started realizing I was overwhelmed by my "yard", in BOTH senses. :)  I needed to concentrate on my "inch".  The one thing I could look around and get DONE.  The small effort portion of each day that could impact, for good, the remainder of it.

I decided to take back control of my stalting thoughts and of my life.  I pulled out the most grounded, real, principle centered literature I could find:  Covey's 7 Habits for Families.  I found a passage from p.61:  "As you live your values, your sense of identity, integrity, control, and inner-directedness will infuse you with both exhilaration and peace.  You will define yourself from within, rather than by people's opinions or by comparisons to others."  Then found Habit #2, Begin with the end in mind, "the habit of vision, of purpose, of mission."  Covey asks people to envision how they desire their days to go--each interaction, meeting, relationship, task.  Not to over-plan each detail, but decide what the "spirit of the day" should be.  I decided this could be my "inch"--waking up a few minutes before everyone else and envision how I desired the day to go…even deciding how I will interact with grumpy kids, stressful situations, or frustrating emotions.  I could also just look around and find the one shelf, one room, one task to complete at a time.

So that is the challenge:  What is your "inch"?  Find out what it is: planning dinner, playing with your kids, cleaning just one room, picking up just one backpack--whatever it is!  Don't let the overwhelming "yard" take over.  As we concentrate on the small "inches" at a time we'll begin to feel success, one small accomplishment at a time. :)