Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Just do it!

Those three simple words carry a lot of weight. Advertising motivations aside, the total message behind that phrase is greater that the sum of its three parts. For me, "Just" means stop procrastinating or otherwise making excuses. "It" is intentionally non-specific, because sometimes what "it" is is not as important as doing it. Which leads to the last, and key word "Do", which clearly implies action.

Action is defined by Dictionary.com as: the process or state of being active; an act that one consciously wills and that may be characterized by physical or mental activity; an exertion of power or force; effect or influence.

Living with depression often means being so emotionally and physically exhausted that action of any sort is the farthest thing from our minds. Yet, ironically, action of some sort is often just what we need to jump-start ourselves over the present roadblocks and to reclaim control over our minds and our moods.

Before I lose you, let me be very clear that by "action", I am not referring to physical exercise. While I know that many doctors recommend exercise as a "cure" for depression, I would argue that none of those doctors are actually depressed. If they had ever been, they'd know how absurd that suggestion is for those of us who can barely get out of bed or off the sofa to eat, got to work, and on some days, even to go to the bathroom.

What I am referring to is action, any action, no matter how small, that makes you feel even the slightest bit more powerful, more in control. For example, I've been stressed out about the disheveled state of my home office for months. Every day I mentally beat myself up for not getting in there and getting it cleaned up. I know I'd feel so much better if I did. But if I felt better than I do, it would have already been done. So, the vicious cycle repeats itself day after day.

The problem is not that I don't have the energy to reorganize my office. The problem is that I'm allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, forgetting that it doesn't have to be done all at one time. If the march of a million miles begins with a single step, then surely the race to reorganize my home office begins the same way. So, rather than focusing on the entire project, if I can focus on spending even a little bit of time on my office whenever I'm feeling up to it, I'll be further along than I have been. So today, I'll begin my journey. On the way home I'm stopping at the office supply and getting colorful filing supplies to make the project more fun. And I'm committing to 15 minutes a day to getting it organized. The key will be doing it as soon as I get home, before I realize how exhausted I am from another day at the office. It'll probably take a month to get it done, but that's a lot less than the 5 months that I've spent doing nothing but feeling guilty about doing nothing. And I know that before long (well before I'm done), I'll start to see signs of progress and I'll feel better about my office, my home, and most importantly, about myself.

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