A couple of months ago, I waaay overcommitted myself by offering to take charge of some big projects and found myself frozen in fear and absolutely unable to accomplish any of it. I lay on the couch for hours and even days worrying and wondering how on earth I was going to get everything done. I know it sounds kind of ridiculous, but I’m thinking the chances are pretty good that you’ve been there, too.

What I found was eye-opening.

The more I sat and stressed about what I had to do, the less I believed in my abilities to do any of it. I even began to be quite depressed. I got caught in a kind of stupor called “analysis paralysis”. Such a catchy phrase. The first time I heard it, I wanted to make up a little jingle about it. I’ll spare you the song and dance video. The gist of it is that when we can’t focus on accomplishing one thing at a time, we tend to overthink a situation and never take action.

Something had to be done. After a series of really bad days, I prayed for help and a simple idea came into my mind: “Just get three things done each day and you’ll get a little closer to your goal. Just do something small RIGHT NOW.” I know. It sounds so incredibly simplistic, you might wonder why I couldn’t think of it myself. But the best ideas and answers I get from prayer are usually the simplest. I don’t know about you, but when I get such a clear call to action, I do my best to follow it. So I forced myself to get off the couch and began to take care of some long-dreaded calls. Now let me be clear that if the instruction was to just plow forward and do big chunks of the projects, I never would have gotten myself going. I really had to believe that I could just do three little things and call it good.

And I would have called it good had it not been for what happened next.

It was amazing! I began to have crazy success and pretty soon, I didn’t want to stop making the calls. I decided I was pretty good at this gig. Also, instead of telling myself, “I’m doing this all by myself,” I reinforced the thought that I was surrounded by people who would help and support me. I quickly gained momentum and confidence and people around me responded in remarkable ways.  After several extremely intense weeks, each of the projects came to a successful conclusion and I was relieved to have survived it.

What I learned from this experience is that when we take on too much at once, our brains lock up, we become exhausted, and then we  stop being productive. Just take a look at the diagram above. We can’t possibly go in every direction or we end up going nowhere at all.

I’m sure you’ve all been there before. In this fast-paced, information-rich world we live in, the problem becomes having too many options and too little time to do them all. What do we do when we’re going in so many directions? How do we prioritize?

Here’s where it gets good!  Through my experiences, I’ve come up with a few ideas that I hope will help you. They may appear simple but they have the power to change your life!

1)Each morning, right when you get up, pray or meditate, even for just a few minutes.  I promise you will have a better day and more than make up the time you spent in morning devotion. Ask the question: “What three things do I need to get done today?” Keep a notebook next to your bed and immediately write down these 3 action steps. As you commit to complete these steps, you’ll be amazed at how much help and strength you receive to do them – from the Universe, from your angels, from God.

2)Right before bed, take out your handy-dandy notebook and check off the goals you’ve completed today. Have a little celebration with yourself! You earned it! I’ll talk more about celebrations in a future post. If by chance, you didn’t complete all 3 goals, write the unfinished items on tomorrow’s page.

3)Write down 3 other random successes you’ve had today. Sometimes, I get on a roll and write even more!  It’s just so satisfying. I can’t help it.  It’s great because you get to determine what success is. It could be not getting mad when your child is late for school or cleaning out the car or whatever. On days when I feel as if I’ve done nothing at all, I do this and I’m always surprised to see that I actually have done a ton and didn’t realize it.

In this world, there are negative voices, both mortal and immortal, that try to convince us that what we’ve done and who we are isn’t worth much. These are lies. By writing down your successes for the day, you gather evidence that your efforts are extremely valuable. I find this step to be so delightful. I will go out of my way to be really kind to others so I have something great to write down about my day. It’s a great motivator!

4)Finally, think of 3 things you’re grateful for and write them down. I’m sure you’ve heard all about the law of attraction. The law of attraction, in its simplest form, states that what you put into this world is what you will get out of it. Gratitude is key. You attract into your life those things that you are grateful for.

5)It’s time to pray and meditate again, even if just to tell God how grateful you are for these 3 things. This is powerful in so many ways. We need about a dozen more posts to scratch the surface of the power of prayer and meditation.

So that’s the formula!  When you wake up, rinse and repeat! You will begin to feel an enormous shift start to happen in your life.

To recap in a simpler form:

1. Pray/Meditate to find out what 3 action steps you need to get done today. Write them in a notebook.
2. Put a star or smiley face by completed goals at the end of the day. Celebrate!
3. Record 3 other successes from the day.
4. Write down 3 things for which you’re grateful.
5. Pray/Meditate and express gratitude for those 3 things.

Don’t beat yourself up over any of this. It’s an imperfect process. Sometimes I fall off the wagon and don’t do it for quite a while (like that time when I was stuck on the couch). I can tell you that the more you implement any or all of these steps, the better you’ll feel about yourself, the more productive you’ll be and the more success you’ll have!

It all boils down to this: When you include God in planning and recapping your day, everything will just go better.

Notice I didn’t say “Life will be easy”? After I prayed for help, my projects didn’t suddenly become easy. BUT, I was definitely given DIRECTION and STRENGTH.

Prioritize Him and he’ll help you prioritize! Give it a try. I know you’ll be glad you did!

I’d love to have you comment after you’ve given this a try. Let’s celebrate those successes together!

Sending out love and good vibes!

Paulette

“Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good.”