I looked at today’s list and shuttered!  I wanted to run away from home; then quickly realized that what made me shutter is all I have to do to “run away from home” - if only for 8 days.

When my back’s against the wall & there is more to accomplish than moments in the day, I make a list.  No, I make several lists!  Then I try diligently to work my way through each list; feeling a sense of satisfaction when I can cross each item off & mark as “done”. 

But sometimes the list(s) are too much.  The tasks take longer than a brief phone call or quick dash-off the computer.  They may take an hour or more to complete while I’m constantly checking the clock to see how much time I have left.

However, over the weekend I discovered something.  I discovered that when I just calmed down & turned my mind from fretting over “getting it all done” to simply getting it done - I got it all done!  For instance, our plan includes taking a gift to Russell Watson.  A colts jersey & a CD to be autographed for a certain person. 

I fretted over getting to the official Colts store in the city when I didn’t really have time to do that.  A long story short; I found the shirt at a store much closer to us, as well as the CD I needed.  A quick trip yesterday and I could declare - “mission accomplished!”

I had spent as much time mentally ‘fretting’ as we did getting the needed items.

While I believe that women tend to become more natively organized as we ‘chrono-mature’, I also know that we tend to ‘fret’ over the small stuff because we don’t realize the maturing of our abilities.    If I had just set my mind to making the couple of phone calls it took to find the jersey & CD; I could have been on the road and back again at least 24 hours earlier.

The amazing thing is - we get it all done!  We do.  And we do it with a fair amount of grace, charm and flair.  And if there is a morsel left on the list; we seem not to concern ourselves.  At least that’s true in my case. 

It’s another Monday and another week at the “well” (ours or another’s).  If you are like many of us, you began mental preparation for today - yesterday.  At least by the close of Sunday, you were going over in your mind what had to be down today. 

And you arose with a clear agenda as to what, how, when & where you would apply your focused energy on the last day of June, 2008.

So my encouragement for you today is to shove the “fretting” aside if you are prone to such action.  Take your list of “to-do’s”; prioritize from imperative to “if it doesn’t get done - oh well!” and dig in.  Trust me - by the end of your day, you’ll find you got it all done!  And moved the “oh wells” to another day.

And reward yourself with something awesome as you mentally make your list for tomorrow!  WOW, aren’t we a talented organized group of folk!

Linda, a fellow journeyer