The First Small Step

Hi, my name's Gigi and I am a procrast-a-holic. Yep, addicted to procrastination big time. Total expert... need any advice on how to procrastinate... I'm your person! But that's a whole different blog.

Winston Churchill quote

I've been meaning to start this particular blog for months, but it always seemed way too overwhelming. What would I write about? Who would read it? What was the point? And so I procrastinated. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I took a small step and decided to look for a url at blogspot.com that wasn't taken. I had been mulling over possible blog titles for a few weeks but they all seemed too "niche-y". "Small Steps" came to me yesterday morning - it is broad enough that I can work with it. I tweaked the subtitle a bit and... voila... we have us a blog title.

From that Small Step, it didn't take much to set up the rest of the blog - layout, theme, font, etc. Blogspot makes it pretty dummy proof and I have set up a few blogs in my time. The next Small Step was to do the same on Facebook - set up a page - get a cover pic and... it's done. Go figure... that didn't take long, did it?

I've read a tonne of productivity articles and books, hoping to find the key that would unlock the procrastination lock that clamps down on me. Realizing all the time that reading productivity articles was a form of procrastination! How's that for self-awareness. Sigh.

The thing that I keep coming back to, out of all the reams of advice thrown at me is this: narrow the project/to-do list/task down to one small task. Small, like... tiny, so small that the inertia hump is almost non-existent. Just work on it for 15 minutes... even 10... oh heck... let's call it 5 minutes. I can do 5 minutes can't I? Sure I can... particularly if I've whittled my overwhelming down to the next action... down to one small step. (Hat tip to Getting Things Done system by David Allen).

The impetus for this particular blog has been building for almost a year. I had been blogging about my Dad's journey into dementia... and the struggles that he, and I, as his caregiver, both faced. He passed away in February 2019 and inspiration for that blog slowly sputtered to a stop. So I idled in neutral for several months.

Well, not entirely true... I did get my book on my grandfather (The Spy in the Tower - the untold story of Josef Jakobs, the last person to be executed at the Tower of London) published in May 2019, followed by promo efforts. So I haven't been... like... totally procrastinating. I have been productively working on something else. But even during that time... this blog has been niggling at me. Conceived out of some forgotten interaction or article... it's been gestating inside of me. The last few weeks, it's been pushing to be born and... here we are. I'll follow this Muse and see where it leads.

So... long way of getting around to... what the heck is this blog going about? The original conception was something around climate change... of making a difference to increase the wellness of the planet, in some small way. In the last few months, however, I've embarked on my own journey to wellness. My cholesterol (the bad one) crept up and up... and my doctor was muttering about statins. Yikes! My blood sugar was also creeping up... double yikes! My weight had been creeping up for years... You get the point. I realized I was no longer 30... could not longer eat Hawkins Cheezies with impunity... could no longer take wellness for granted. It was time for a change.

Margaret Mead quote

In some ways, it's kind of like climate change... it too has been creeping into the danger zone. Scientists tell us we have crossed the line... like my cholesterol. But what to do? What the heck can I do about global climate change? I'm just one person... and it's anxiety-producing and depressing to feel that powerless.

But the more I read... the more I realize... it's not just me... it's all of us. Grass roots... we can make a difference. If we all take small steps... if we move against the flow... we can alter our future. And so... these are my small steps to wellness - for me... and for the planet. Cause, surprisingly enough... wellness for me seems to support wellness for the planet. Maybe my small steps will help you in taking your own small steps... to wellness... not just for yourself but for your community and for the planet... Join me?