One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I’ve been a bit sparse these days due to the phenomenon of One Step Forward, Two Steps Back. It is one that has plagued me off and on for years. Lately, I haven’t even managed the One Step Forward of the equation…it’s been more like Two Steps Back, Sit Down and Lament the Fact That I’m Not Getting Anywhere, Two Steps Back, etc.

There’s probably a few of you out there who totally “get” what I am talking about, but for those of you less challenged by daily life, let me elaborate…

Last week was the homeschooling convention. Great fun as usual. With the homeschooling convention comes a buying spree of next year’s curriculum and other needful things (and a few wantful things as well!) **One Step Forward**

Nearly a week and a half later, my purchases continue to litter my living room floor. The reason for this is because we use a classical homeschooling model and for months I’ve been trying to formulate a way to separate all of my resources into a Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 format. I had decided on using bookshelves, but I didn’t really want them lumped in with my other bookshelves. I also had this wierd Type A thing going on…I wanted all 4 bookshelves to be uniform in size and color. I wasn’t too keen on purchasing 4 more bookshelves, so I was desperately trying to make what I had on hand work. Yet, all I had managed to do so far was to go downstairs each and every day and stare at my bookshelves and sigh an overwhelmed sigh. **Two Steps Back**

Many of you have probably heard Elisabeth Elliot’s famous quote, “Do the next thing.” I’ve often wondered what happens when the next thing can’t be done until you do something else that needs to be done first, but you can’t do that thing because there is something else that has to be taken care of prior to that, and on and on and on in a backwards fashion until you’ve completely lost sight of what that “next thing” truly was.

This is the reason I’ve not been blogging (or even spending much time on the computer at all) of late. I’m just too busy walking backwards!

After doing this over and over again, I have become sick of myself. Today I decided I had to just DO SOMETHING! If it was the wrong something, I could redo it, but at least I would have done something.

Rather than bite off the ambitious goal of organizing 4 bookshelves, I decided to start working on Year 1 (the year we are ready for this coming school year). The house is in utter disarray, and there is an appraiser coming by in the morning, but at least I did SOMETHING! I took care of something that was causing me to have to backtrack. And while it may not be the perfect solution, at least it sets me in motion to move forward for a while.

I’ve begun looking at many things in this way. What ONE thing can I do to make this problem area less of a problem? Why is this one area ALWAYS messy? Would a basket fix this problem? Maybe I have too much of something and need to declutter. Why am I ALWAYS discouraged when I think about this certain thing? Maybe I have too many unattainable expectations and need to let go of some of those. Maybe there is some sort of stumbling block in my way.

So, my motto has become, “Just do something!” It doesn’t have to be perfect or right, but it is so much better than doing nothing and wishing all day long you had done something.