just do one thing

I had a Shiva Nata epiphany - a Shivapiphany? - last week that I found rather interesting.

My project for the summer is to start an etsy shop for photos and photo cards. It is a lovely project but it seemed oddly slow going. I'd start the day with all these thoughts running around in my head of things to do. And yet I'd end the day without doing any of them.

When I journal after Shiva Nata practice, the thing that comes up quite often is, "Take one step at a time". This is such an obvious statement that I tend to go, "Whatever. What else would I do." and ignore it.

Well .. the epiphany behind this finally hit me.

When my head is full of all of the things I need to do for a project, the number of things to do overwhelms me. I can't decide which things to do when. I can't decide which things are most important. I can't be sure that I'm not missing something. And so I do nothing. Well, I guess I'm not doing nothing - I'm doing a lot of thinking - but no action is being taken.

Hence my advice to myself. The thing I need to do is just pick one thing and do it.

I've been trying this out and I have to say, I am remarkably productive. (To be fair, the bar was extremely low.) Who knew.

Comments

[Vivienne Grainger]

The high bar was the whole "realization" thing. Kudos to you for making the leap.

[steph]

I have this problem a *lot*. I've been trying to remember to do the same thing - just pick one thing and do it, without trying to figure out whether it's the most important thing or the best thing or the right thing. When I remember, it makes a huge difference, not only in my productivity, but in my state of mind. When I remember. :)

[Josiane]

I'm so glad to read you've find a way to get this lovely project moving forward! Yay!
I totally relate to what you're saying here. So much more thinking than taking action... I'll have to experiment with this "doing one thing (that is not thinking)" thing.

[elizabeth --]

@Josiane: Well, I found a way, but I haven't exactly started on this particular project yet. ;-) Report out, please! I am curious how this works for you.

@Steph: That's really good to hear. Thank you for sharing this.

@Vivienne: Thank you! :)