Tice Thursday Reaction

My new friend Cris, over at GOODEness Gracious, has started a weekly feature called Tice Talk Thursday. 


She is on her 3rd week of telling us about Lou Tice, author of Smart Talk, and it is changing my life.  Truly.  I have not read Tice's book, but Cris's summaries and reflections are enough for me right now.







Every time I read Cris's Tice Talk posts, I do some serious thinking.  The past two weeks, I have simply commented on her post, but this week I thought I should do my own blog post.  In order for this all to REALLY make sense, I suggest that you read Cris's posts, and then my replies.  But I think it would kind of make sense even if you skip her posts.




After reading week 1 I commented:

I generally feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Work stresses me out, but bores me at the same time. My home is a completely messy disaster, and there never seems to be enough time to get everything done.

I think this all stems from my lack of ORGANIZATION. So that's my goal. Get organized. And then, I think a lot of the stress and overwhelmed-ness will disappear. Am I doing this backwards? Should the goal be to eliminate stress and the "way" be organization?

Even as I write this, I'm thinking of excuses - places to put the blame. My thyroid, my husband working too much, my little buddy who keeps me from getting things done, etc. etc. But I'm going to put those out of my mind and work on organization only!

In week 2, I replied:

Another great post. I, too, feel kind of like I struggle through the days sometimes, but I can't pinpoint why. I feel as though I am being true to my values. HHHmmmm...this one is making me think.

(I think I should re-read week 2.)

Here is week 3.  


I have to admit, I haven't processed it all yet.  I got to THIS LINE and had to write.  I do plan on making my own mission statement though.

"Tice teaches that sanity is subconciously more important to us than success."

This line really hit me, because with many of my goals, it's my desire for sanity that gets in my way. 

I am seriously disorganized and messy, but:
a) Subconsciously, I have a pretty high "messy" threshhold, maybe because I grew up in a messy, disorganized home? (sorry mom.)
b) When it comes to the moment of deciding whether to get off the couch and clean, or lay on the couch with my laptop, it SEEMS as though hanging out with my laptop will help my sanity more.  But in REALITY, I think cleaning would keep me more sane in the LONG RUN. 

So I think I need to adjust my thinking on both things - adjust my level of messiness threshhold, and remind myself that even though I'm tired now, putting away laundry, doing dishes, etc. etc. will benefit me in the future.

This realization is kind of ironic because I am generally very good at thinking long term about the consequences of my decisions...apparently, though, I sabotage my own organization goal when it comes to that little moment of "hang out or clean."

So now, I need to absorb this for a little bit, and then come back and make my mission statement.  And I have to say a huge THANK YOU to Cris for this series.  It is so inspirational and helpful!