1. Perfection. Just let it go. Not worth it. If attained the cost is far more than you could really afford. Use whatever term works for you: Law of diminishing returns, statistically insignificant gains, low yield ratio.
2. Lousy relationships. Easier said than done. These are the people that suck the life right out of you. Some of the ways they thin the air is by complaining, being needy, demanding or rude. These aren’t bad people, just not the right people for you. We should always learn to get along but we certainly don’t want to intentionally spend our precious, limited hours on people that drain our energy. So if it’s not possible to let go completely, cut back.
3. Complaining. Unless you like spending your time with complainers, to attract quality people, stop complaining. It seems so fun at the time but really achieves nothing.
4. Procrastinating. It gets you nowhere. I am so bad at procrastinating that I have to come up with systems to get things done. You saw the tolerances thing I did last week, that’s the system. What I like to get done, always get’s done. It’s all the rest of the icky stuff that seems to hang around waiting for me forever.
5. Over committing. You don’t want to be that person that no one can count on do you? Always late. Never sending the information you promised. The only way to stop over committing is to take the things you have committed to extremely seriously. Even the little seemingly trivial commitments you have made.
6. Making excuses. There is a powerful question in Jack Canfield’s book, The Success Principles, that helps with this one: “How did I create this situation?”. Ask this of everything. Some are blatantly obvious: I’m rushing because I didn’t plan ahead properly. Others are not so obvious: a stressful work environment or misbehaving children. There will always be external factors, everyone has to live with those but there are always choices we make that either get us closer to where we want to go or further away.
7. Comparing. You to anyone else. Your kids to any other kids. Your friends. Your family. I guess what I am saying is don’t compare.
8. Being grumpy. Let’s definitely leave this one behind. Nothing fun about hanging out with grumpy people. In fact once you have let go of your own grumpiness, avoid being around any grumpy people. They might infect you back.
9. Multi-tasking. You know how I feel about this one. Studies have shown yada yada yada …
10. Stuff. It’s a terrible word but is so apt for our accumulations. I walk into my storage area and wonder where all this stuff came from. What is all this stuff doing here? It can’t possibly belong to me because I don’t use it. Heirlooms you say. Yeah, right, that gold plated pendant I got from my great great grandmother. It needs a whole room.
11. Resentment. The feeling of displeasure or indignation at some act, remark, person, etc., regarded as causing injury or insult (dictionary.com). There are people out there so ready to be displeased that they will even get displeased in your stead. I say, leave it to them.
12. Anger. Tough to let go. But possible (sometimes with professional counselling). Be mad. Be very mad. Then move on.
13. Self doubt. It’s so debilitating. It should be classified as a medical condition because it can render you helpless and unable to act. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt and believe.
14. Guilt. I think this is so important I am starting a new Facebook page: Guilt Free Mama. Moms seem to walk around with heaps of this stuff. We feel guilty about going back to work. We feel guilty about not going back to work. We feel guilty about having fun. We feel guilty about not having fun. For heavens sake, just let it go!
15. Past failures. What’s worse than failure? I can think of a lot of things but for the purposes of my point: carrying the failure around like a medal. Worse yet (I wanted to use worser!), making it the reason for not trying.
If you like my list and are on Facebook (guilt free) to get away from your family (just for a minute) tell me what I left out and what you are planning to let go off.
Thanks for the article. I find it very interesting and most importantly, useful
Awesome that you found the article useful. Have a wonderful 2012.