In housekeeping as in any other job we set out to do, there are factors that set the successful achiever apart from the frustrated wheel spinner.

 

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What sets Cleanies apart from Messies? They have a formula for success whether they are aware of it or not.

Definite goal

A goal must be specific in order to be meaningful or useful. Just to say, "I don’t want to live this way anymore" is not enough.

How do you want to live? Make it clear by deciding something like this: "I see myself being able to have friends over anytime without three days’ work." "I see myself waking up in the morning with the house under control, and I see myself with a plan to keep it under control."

Emerson said, "Thoughts rule the world." Make your thoughts concrete.

Sufficient motivation

Athletes know that 90 percent of preparation is mental and 10 percent is physical. They know that many times they lose because they beat themselves, they psych themselves out. The main thing is to have a winning attitude. In order to win in athletics you must expect to win.

Use what is called the movie technique to get yourself going in the morning. See yourself doing the jobs you have planned, leaving the house in order and returning to a supportive house.

Now mix what you see with emotion while you are seeing it. Feel determined as you see yourself working; feel happy when you see your job completed.

Planned action

We can wear ourselves out just deciding what to do if we don’t have a predetermined plan. One word of warning: don’t plan to do so much in the beginning that you wear yourself out and quit. Pace yourself and take a day off each week.

Meaningful evaluation

One temptation is to put a plan into motion and just keep on keeping on with it, simply because it is our plan and not because it works. We need to stop and evaluate whether it works.

Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, was known for asking frequently, "How am I doing?" Stop and ask yourself, "How am I doing?"

Ways to keep your dream alive

Get a picture out of a magazine, listen to tapes, visit model homes, write in a journal. Tap into them all. Motivation is a terrible thing to waste. You need to do everything you can to keep going till you reach your dream.

 

Excerpted and condensed from Sandra Felton’s: The New Messies Manual: The Procrastinator’s Guide to Good Housekeeping. For more information, visit Messies.com.

 

Used by permission of Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, copyright © 2000. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group, www.bakerbooks.com.