Friday, September 26, 2008

Man

At church we always talk about "the natural man is an enemy to God." I don't like to think of myself as an enemy to anyone, but I realized I definately let the natural (wo)man rule much of my life. For example, here are some of my current goals (current meaning as long as I can remember).

- 10:30 bed time and 6:00 wake up. Sometimes I stay up doing nothing but can hardly get up in the morning.
- cardio and strength training regularly. I often do one or the other, but not enough of either.
- clean up after myself. I can't seem to keep my tiny apt clean with just me and Abe. Too much mail, school junk, and long days that make me lazy
- eat more fruits and veggies. I think I do pretty well but there is room for improvement
- make and live by a budget, something I all too often fall of the band wagon with.
- take more pride in my appearance (goes back to #1--sleeping in too late to often wear make up. I figure why bother when I am in scrubs, anyway. Regardless I am a scrub)

I feel like I am a master at following through with long term goals. Things like, "Go to dental school." and more importantly, "Graduate from dental school." I have a hard time being consistent with the day to day tasks and habits.

If anyone has any tips, ideas, etc for helping me overcome my natural man, please comment!

5 comments:

Amber said...

You sound a lot like me. Oh wait, we're twins! I usually have the same issues and the same exact goals. Russell and I have been much better at cleaning up after ourselves, yet today I will spend most of the day catching up. I find cleaning up is easiest if you don't give yourself the mental option to "do it later." Then, spend at least 1-2 days a week catching up. You can tell when a room is getting to the "if you don't clean me up now, I'll snowball into a huge mess" stage. That's when you have to catch it. Go through your place one room at a time and get rid of the junk/clutter. Mail is the worst. Get rid of your piles and make committments to throw out the junk and organize the rest as soon as you get it. Working out is hard. But if you wake up on time, I find it is easiest to just go right when you wake up--before you get distracted by other things. I have actually been doing well going to the gym at least 4 times per week. It helps that Russell has to wake up early. If you find you didn't go in the morning, schedule a time at night to work out and only allow yourself 1-2 days break so if you do miss, it's okay. But then you know by Saturday, you don't have the option to opt-out. Anyway, I'm usually awful at these things, but I am proud of the small improvements I am making. I think that is also important--to be proud of the small changes. You have decades to perfect the natural man, don't expect to do it all this week. Oh, and Russell had a great idea to have a couple's white board. We write down all of the things we did during the day and put it into boxes of importance/non-important. It feels good to write down all the things you accomplish. I'm pretty sure you are like me and do things just to write them down.

Amber said...

One thing that has helped me keep up on housework is to make a "chore calendar." I know it sounds way dorky, but it has really helped. It keeps things from getting overwhelming 'cause I'm doing a little bit each day. If something is a mess, it's also a little reassuring to think "I don't have to get to that until _day."

As far as any of the other goals go, I make an effort to get ready every day because I know Brett appreciates it. I know Abe loves you just as you are, but sometimes it's nice to look good for someone else, even if all you do is a little mascara, blush and lip gloss. Even that doesn't take more than two minutes in the morning, right? Sometimes looking good for someone else is good motivation. I know it works for me.

That's all the advice I can think of. I'm not very good at the other things, especially working out. I should probably be better at that myself, considering I now have a post-preggy body that could really use some attention.

Good luck with your goals, though. I'm here to help in any way I can!

Diana said...

Hey Erin,

I'm in the same boat as you. The big goals are much easier to attain (or be on track to attain) than the daily, monotonous goals. I think establishing a routine has helped me the most. But I still struggle all the time. If you saw the state of our home on most days, you'd see. :) Good luck!

Rachel said...

Maybe we are meant to be buds since I suck at long term goals.
A lot of it has to do with time. I would pick one thing, say starting with working out. Someone once told me if you do anything for 29 days straight, it will become an internal habit. Concentrate on it absolute for however many days, say 14. It will just become part of your life. Once you incorporate the first goal add another. it helps you feel more success and less failure. Trying to change so many things or add so many things all at once can be overwhelming.
And, you have great skin and hair. Find interesting ways to do it up (since you have to wear it up) and start everyday with a sweep of blush on your sheeks and eyelids. one brush, one compact of make-up. Once you can do that, build up if you need to. you do not need a lot of make-up! you look great! Good Luck!

Erin said...

Thanks for the encouragment everyone and your good ideas. I will try some of your tips and start small. I am trying to decide which goal to start with. I am thinking the bed time one. I know I will feel better and be able to accomplish more if I do this one first. It can be easy to rationalize a late night, though, esp for things like studying. I need to come up with concrete ways to do it. Maybe I will get ready for bed at 9:30 instead of 10:25 for a 10:30 bed time.