Live Life Beyond the Laundry. Christy Boone's Tryhus
they could figure that out. They do it every day.)
7:06: Run back to my room to get ready for work.
7:08: Ugh. Tell kids to get dressed again. (Seriously?)
7:09: Run back to my room to finish getting ready for work.
7:10: “Come on, kids… bathroom duty time, hair, teeth, deodorant, get it done.” (Want your friends to say you stink and have ugly hair? This is really not my problem; it’s yours.)
7:15: Did you do your bathroom duty, kids? Hair, teeth, deodorant…get it done or you are going to bed early tonight.
7:20: Finish getting ready. The bus will be here in four minutes.
7:21: Mom, I need you to sign my permission slip for the field trip. (Seriously, could she not have asked me this last night?)
7:22: Mom, I need $10 for a band t-shirt. It’s due today. (Again, why did she not ask me last night?)
7:23: Come on! You’re going to miss the bus. (Great, now I had to yell at them as they were leaving for school.)
7:24: Yes! The kids are at the bus stop.
7:28: Put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher.
7:30: Take dog outside. (I feel so bad I yelled at the kids on their way out the door.)
7:40: On the road to work—finally!
7:55: And the work day has begun. (Why do I feel so stressed today? I really wish I had not yelled at the kids on their way out the door.)
8:00: Call from the school: “Mom, I forgot my tennis shoes for gym. Can you bring them? (Seriously?) “Sure, honey, I will bring them right away.”
8:20: Back to work.
9:00: Meeting.
10:00: Meeting.
11:00: Catch up on email.
12:00: Lunch hour. (Oh, I mean errand hour—grocery store, bank, post office.)
You get the picture. And the chaos and mommy guilt continue throughout the day. Look at all the chaos and stress created in just a mere 2 hours and 15 minutes before Bizzy even went to work. What a way to start the day! Back to Bizzy.
Whew, I made it through the work day. It would have gone a little better if I had not yelled at the kids as they left this morning. I have to hurry and get the kids picked up from after-school care; it closes in 15 minutes. I will not be that mom who is late picking up her kids.
I will be there in eight minutes and will have seven minutes to spare, so I am not one of those moms. Yay, me! Wow! Traffic is really backed up. OH?!/% A TRAIN! I did not build that into my timing. So I may be one of those moms running through the door of after-school care apologizing and making up excuses why I am late. Good thing I can blame it on the train.
Good, that was a fast train. I have made it to after-school care with one minute to spare…at least according to my clock. Hi, kids. I am so sorry I yelled at you this morning.
Who has homework? Hope it’s not too much. We have piano and football practice tonight. Oh, I forgot about supper. I am so hungry. I guess I forgot about lunch as well. Kids, what do you want from Zippy Burger tonight? Sorry, but we need to eat in the car again. (Oh, how I hate Zippy Burger).
It is so nice that football and piano overlap. I have 15 minutes to read my magazine in the car. Time to pick up the kids and rush home to finish homework. Kids, shower time, bedtime and don’t forget to brush your teeth. Oh, they are finally in bed. I am so tired. I need to start a load of laundry or there will be someone without underwear in the morning. Who needs that drama?
Flop! Finally I can go to bed. I wonder what I forgot to do. That big project at work is not going so well. Tomorrow I am not going to yell at the kids on their way out the door. I wonder if someone fed the dog. I really need to go to sleep. I am tired. How are we going to make it to football, conferences and dance all at the same time tomorrow? I really need some sleep.
BBBBBBZZZZZZZ! (*%&#) That alarm gets earlier every morning. Oh, guess I was wrong. It is 5:45. I really need to get up a little earlier and go for a walk in the morning. Whatever, I need the sleep.
I am so tired of being this busy. I want to read a book or get a pedicure or watch a movie I like. But my kids and work must come first. It’s okay that I am not part of my daily to-do list. I can just wish I had the time for a pedicure or to read a good book. My friend Ann always finds time to read books. I wonder how she does that. She must ignore her kids, and I bet her house is a mess.
When I first met Bizzy, her life was filled with chaos, worry, mommy guilt and excuses. She needed a change. She incorporated the strategies you will learn about in the next eight chapters into her daily routine, and her life has changed drastically. At the conclusion of the book, she will share with you how she lives her life now. You will be amazed by the change. The tools and strategies work if you incorporate them into your daily life. Daily action creates results. So let’s begin.
Before we dig into the 7 Strategies, it is important to briefly discuss the process we go through when making changes in our lives. The topic of change is discussed in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 we will discuss making excuses. Admit it, ladies, we all make them. Excuses are the source of obstacles and barriers that prevent us from creating successful change. After learning about the change process and excuses, we will dive into the strategies. Enjoy your journey!
Living Life Beyond the Laundry = Balancing Life
“The essential question is not how busy are you?
But what are your busy at?” ~Oprah Winfrey
Chapter 2
Understanding Change
“To change one’s life: Start immediately, Do it flamboyantly, no exceptions.” ~William Jones, Philosopher
Before we begin learning and applying the 7 Strategies to shift life from chaos to calm, it is important to understand the different stages of change. The change created by applying the strategies and tools in Live Life Beyond the Laundry is more than a New Year’s resolution. If done correctly, it’s a sustainable lifestyle change!
Many of the coaching clients I work with want change to happen overnight. I’m sorry to tell you it doesn’t happen that fast. Successful, positive change takes time and work. You really have to want the end result of the change to make the change happen. Consistent daily action sustained over a period of time creates results. During the change process, you are basically reprogramming your brain.
Scientists believe that 90 percent of our day-to-day activities are spent in routine. This is a good thing. This means we just know how to brush our teeth, turn on the shower, make a bowl of cereal or even read a book. You have practiced these activities with such consistency and frequency that you have created pathways in your brain to repeat the sequences without even thinking about them.
This is also a bad thing. You have developed unhealthy, destruc-tive routines as well—for example, creating unrealistic expectations, telling yourself you are so busy, multi-tasking, and telling yourself you don’t have the time.
My coaching clients who have successfully implemented even some of the tools and strategies in this book reap benefits for a lifetime. The strategies work. I challenge you to make a few small changes. The strategies in this book are something you