One Bite at a Time

Saturday morning less than two weeks before Christmas and I have most of the whole day ahead of me. I've been thinking about being sort of "stuck" in neutral about Christmas (or much of anything else). I found myself kind of wandering around the house somewhat aimlessly last night, my eyes resting on various piles of stuff just screaming for attention. There's too much of it and I find I can't really concentrate on any of it. Maybe lack of concentration is lending to the lack of Christmas spirit.

I know this about myself: when things start to get whelming, I have a tendency to freeze with inaction. The tasks seem too big. The pile of Christmas cards is a good example. In order to deal with the pile, I need to gather up the address book, stamps, return address stamper and even a pen. I've already dug these cards out from under the bottom of the pile of stored STUFF, isn't that enough?

And I don't need to tell you cards aren't the only pile around here. A while back, I bought a book about directing a school play to help advisors take on this huge task and this minor purchase gave me a philosophy that helps me almost every day. The book was called How to Eat an Elephant. The simple answer is "one bite at a time".

I've adopted the "one bite at a time" tool to deal with these times when I feel somewhat frozen faced with huge disruptions or jobs. So, today, "one bite at a time" I plan to just DEAL. I'm putting on my favorite Christmas movie (Muppet Christmas Carol); preheating the oven for cookies; and tending to the clutter. One pile at a time.

Of course, you might notice I'm blogging rather than dealing with the messes ( a minor procrastination ). Ryan is sleeping downstairs so wrapping gifts is out for now. That's OK. I can deal. It's about 9:30 AM. I'd better have some Christmas spirit by dinnertime, damn it. I'll keep you posted.