Week 6 – Procrastination

Let us talk procrastination…. We ALL do it; some are better at it than others 😊 This week on our weekly webinar we discussed procrastination, and this was a ‘light bulb’ moment for me. I have been known to procrastinate on MANY occasions…. Just have a look at my blog, we are required to submit our weekly blog by Friday night, I am seriously sitting down at my laptop on Friday at like 8pm to work on it and get it published! Because I know I NEED to do it as it is due!! For me that’s procrastination. I have had ALL week to do it and I just DON’T!

During our weekly webinar a quote that stood out for me was ‘All we are doing is giving problems to our future self.’ And HOLLY MOLY, how true is this? I have never looked at it this way before and it totally changes my perspective on procrastinating. To the point that when I find myself doing it, I am going to call it! I call BS and I am going to go and DO IT NOW! Why? Because my future self will not only Thank Me for Doing It NOW, but I also will not be ADDING MORE things to my future self’s ‘To Do’ list!

I’m a HUGE list writer, I write lists for EVERYTHING, I love the satisfaction of crossing the task off when its completed and the joy of throwing the list in the bin when its ALL finally complete. When my procrastination sets in, I find myself being ‘picky’ about which things on my list I want to do. OR I will start a whole NEW list just to avoid the task I do NOT want to do. But really what is that doing for me???

It is making my current self not accountable and creating extra work for my future self. I get the task done eventually and 90% of the time, I complete the task and go ‘that wasn’t so bad, why did I put it off for SO long?’ And WHY did I put it off? Because my Blueprint I have created tells me I do not want to do it, its going to be hard, I do not have the time, Ill do it tomorrow. ALL LIES!!! I call it! BS

My new Blueprint I am creating does not have time for procrastination. Procrastination will no longer that over my life! Will it be easy to change this? NO! Am I aware of what I am doing? Yes! But I know by taking the small steps of recognizing when I am procrastinating and changing what I am doing to what NEEDS to be done. I CAN and WILL overcome my old Blueprint of procrastinating.

Procrastination has no place in my new life. DO IT NOW is my new motto!

Week 5 – ‘I form new habits and become their slave’

This week brings us to the end of my first month of the MKE program. We have been reading Scroll I from ‘The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino’ and on Sunday we will move onto Scroll II. I am looking forward to seeing what Scroll II has in store.

We were asked to note down one sentence from Scroll I to carry forward and read with the second Scroll. The sentence I chose was “I form new habits and become their slave.”

What does this mean? In Scroll I we learn that we have habits (or patterns) and our habits are not always “good” habits. It is our “bad” habits that stop us from fulfilling our true potential. So, how do we form “good” habits to override our “bad” habits? Well, lucky for us only a habit can subdue another habit. So, by creating a NEW “good” habit and becoming its slave we override our bad habits which bring us closer to our true desire in life.

Overriding a “bad” habit is not an easy task, one must discipline themselves to stay true to the new “good” habit.

What is our NEW “good” habit that Scroll I is teaching us? It is about reading the same passage for 30 days, 3 times a day BUT the most important part is when you read it of a night before bed, you MUST read it aloud, and your reading must be the LAST thing you do before retiring to sleep. WHY? Because our subconscious mind is ALWAYS working, 24 hours a day, 7 days a

Picture from Google Images

week. When we are awake, asleep, daydreaming, it is ON and working ALL the time. It is particularly important to be feeding our subconscious mind with good & positive thoughts.

Another interesting fact I have learnt about our subconscious mind is that you can ‘trick’ it to believe anything, and the most effective way to do this is to read aloud. What you say out loud is believed by your subconscious mind. Therefore by reading out load right before you retire to bed is feeding your subconscious mind with what you want it to manifest.

Read those affirmation cards, goals, dreams out loud BEFORE bed and with enthusiasm and watch your subconscious mind go to work. What you think about you bring about!

Week 4 – The Ugly Brown Couch

This week we made some changes to our Cue Cards, one minor change was that we changed the name of one of our cards from our Chore card to our Service card. Now this does not seem like a lot or a big difference BUT when you are trying to change your Blueprint of how your mind works this is a HUGE change.

My view on our Chore/Service Card is to help ‘train’ our mind to connect tasks, no matter how big and small they are, with daily promises to create GOOD Habits. I am to read my Service card out EVERY day, twice a day I think, (I’ve been reading it twice, let’s hope that’s right) to remind our self to complete our task/service. The actual task is irrelevant, right now it is about building Good Habits around completing your ‘promises’ made to yourself.

My task this week was to tidy up our Rumpus Room upstairs. Let me paint you a picture, upstairs we only have our bedrooms and the rumpus room, so it does not get used very often and when people visit us, we always stay downstairs in the living area. So, the rumpus room becomes a dumping ground for things that need to be put away, but I never have the time ‘right now’ to do it. It’s also where all our clean laundry goes ‘to be folded.’ I call this our Python of Clothes.

Before moving into our home, we lived in a very small unit, we didn’t have a lot of furniture and when we moved here, we brought all new furniture because it was our first special family home. We went from a small 2-bedroom home to a HUGE 4+ bedroom home, not ever room had furniture and we were ok with that because we knew it was a process. Any way I am getting to the point just bear with me for a little longer. In our unit we had a dodgy UGLY brown fold out

The Ugly Brown Couch

couch which worked fine and was ok BUT I did NOT want this couch to come with us, but Brendan did. His thinking was ‘we need to have a couch in the rumpus room so let’s put it there until we get one’ For some reason I agreed to this and have regretted it ever since.

I watched the removalists maneuver this heavy, brown ugly couch up or brand-new wooden staircase and was thinking ‘how are we going to get this down!’  Fast forward a month or 2 and we found the PERFECT couch for a good price for our rumpus room!! So now we have the ugly brown couch and our new beautiful couch there, both just being used as a dumping ground for things that we need to put away but are too lazy to put away right at that moment.

Fast forward another 3 years and we get to this week’s tasks of tiding the Rumpus Room! Well I got started with the Python of Clothes that needed to be folded and put away. All while looking at the ugly brown couch and it got the better of me! I called for reinforcements, my dad came over with a sledgehammer, crowbar and saw and we dismantled that couch!!! And by

Let the FUN begin

dismantle, I mean DISTROYED it!! We broke it into pieces so we could get it downstairs and out of my house!! And boy did it feel good!!! The small task of tiding up the rumpus room has made something SO much bigger happen. I have been walking past the ugly brown couch for OVER 3 YEARS saying, ‘we need to do something about THAT couch’ and this week I made it happen! And within an hour of making that decision, the ugly brown couch was out of my house!!!

Getting it DONE!

Now when I read my service card and see this weeks task of ‘Tidy Rumpus Room’ I have the immense feeling of satisfaction of knowing that I have not only completed that task but I have removed the Ugly Brown Couch from our house and lives forever!! It just makes me smile even thinking about it. We have so much more space and it is a joy to walk through now and I’m sure will be used more often as well.

Gone forever!

If you have an “Ugly Brown Couch” in your life, get rid of it! Make it happen and remove it from your house and life because it feels good to have it gone and it’s freeing. For the past 3+ years I have been wanting to do it but just never done now and now that it’s gone, I feel at peace and can move on to the next task. So, look out world I’m coming!!

Week 3 – The Stretch…

This week has seemed to be my ‘stretch’ week. It all has felt overwhelming, too much and too hard. Almost to the point where if I had an out, I would have taken it like 3 times TONIGHT!!

I have felt stretched with my daily readings this week, finding my inner peace to sit for 15 min, without moving and trying to train my thoughts to not pop into my space during that 15 min and refining my Definite Major Purpose (DMP). My DMP is my purpose in life, how I want my life to look, it is like the script to MY movie I call Life.

Sounds easy yeah?? That’s what I thought too. I’ve been working on mine for the past 3 weeks along with my Guide Darren. It all started out great, I got what I wanted out on paper, which is really hard for me. If you have ever received a birthday card/card from me that has more than the standard ‘Happy Birthday I hope you have a wonderful day’ SAVE IT!! Like go to the framing place and get that Framed because they are RARE!!! One of my Love Languages is ‘Gift Giving’ I LOVE buying presents/gifts for family and friends, I put a lot of thought into them and love the process of finding the perfect gift for them. I then get to their card and seriously spend 3 days trying to figure out what to write, how do I say what I mean and feel?? And then after the 3 days I still have not figured it out, so I get Miss 4-year-old to draw a pic in it and we are done. Moral of that story is I STRUGGLE to find the words to express how I feel. They just are not there and my DMP is WORDS, WORDS about how I feel and what I want and why I want them and by when??? ARRRRRR inside my head I’m going RUN!!! RUN FAST AND DON’T LOOK BACK!

Pic from Google Images

So why am I still here?? Because I can not let that part of me win anymore! I need to take control, that is why I’m here, doing the Master Key Experience, to create new GOOD habits to replace my old BAD habits that no longer serve me. Did I get it done? For this week YES. Is it perfect? NO. Will I need to revise it next week? YES! But it is all part of the process of stretching and growing. Its stretching me WAY outside my comfort zone. Am I ok with this? Right now, NO, but I know its for the Good and that nothing happens inside your comfort zone, because if it did, we would all have what our hearts desire. It is the people who step outside their comfort zone that grow and achieve all their hearts desires, and that is where I want to be. So, I have a little pity party, call a friend for support (she just told me the same thing my Guide had already said but in other words) and get it done!

And for this week I have almost completed all my tasks, all that remain are my daily readings. Which I know I can do and will continue to do them because I have been doing them for the past 3 weeks.

So, until next week I hope you have a day.

Mel xoxoxo

Week 2 – Finding My Feet

So, we are into Week 2 of the MKE and I am still trying to find my feet. Which is normal for me, it will take me a couple of weeks to find my groove.

This week I have continued to read Scroll One from ‘The Greatest Salesman in the World’ by Og Mandino, which I am required to read 3 times a day. First thing in the morning, then after lunch/midday and then last thing of a night. Of an evening we need to read out loud. I enjoy reading, but I enjoy reading to myself, not so much out loud. BUT I have discovered that reading my Scroll out loud actually helps put little Miss M to sleep. I am not sure if it is because she finds it “Boring” (her words by the way) or if it is the fact that listening helps calm her and allows her to switch off. It may also be that we are not reading her favorite book ‘Hooray for Fish’ by Lucy Cousins. (NOW that book I can read to you right now without the actual book in front of me, that is how many times I have read it.)

Blue RectangleThis week we also had to list a ‘Chore’ we wanted to get done by the end of the week and we linked the chore a BLUE Rectangle. And throughout the day we were to look for Blue Rectangles that were all around us, like street signs, the sign at the Vet was a Blue rectangle, I am sure you get the picture. My Chore was to Vacuum our house, now this is a task I do not enjoy doing. I know I NEED to do it, but I put it off SO much and I know I should just do. Once it is done, I do love the feeling of my clean floors. Any way I got a little off track then, sorry. I personally hadn’t noticed any or many Blue Rectangles earlier in the week BUT what I did find is as soon as I had completed my chore, I saw them EVERYWHERE and I mean everywhere. What I found great about seeing them, is that when I saw them, I had the satisfaction of knowing that my chore was DONE. So, it was kind of like a little burst of happiness inside of me going off. It made me feel good and I was saying to myself ‘YES I did my chore’ and was even high-5’ing myself for a job well done. Now I completed my Chore on Wednesday, so since Wednesday, every time I’ve seen a Blue Rectangle I’ve been filling ‘my cup’ up with little words of encouragement and self-praise. I am sure you can imagine how good that has made me feel and I’ve been looking for Blue Rectangles just so I can give myself a pat on my back.

What have I got from this week? Well I have just realized while writing this blog entry that I need to give myself more of those ‘pats on the back’ because I know I am doing an amazing job and the best I can do and I know you are as well. So take a moment and give yourself a pat on YOUR back for that job well done, because I now you did the best you could and we need to praise ourselves MORE for the amazing work we do. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. Hey, it may have been that your kids are all alive & fed today (we have ALL had those days). Give yourself a pat on the back and know that tomorrow is a new day.

Mel xoxox

Master Key Experience Week 1 – What have I signed up for??

So, a couple of weeks ago a good friend (I am looking at you Lisa) shared with me a video about the Master Key experience. At first, I was not sure what it was, but after watching 3 intro videos I was extremely excited (and a little scared) to take on this 6 MONTH Course!!! Yep that’s right 6 MONTHS!!

Early Monday morning it all began! And boy was I feeling LOST!! So much to take in and do and I was feeling overwhelmed and questioning what I had signed up for. But as they say, you can eat an elephant one bite at a time and that is exactly what I did.

The Master Key Experience for me is all about ME! I am choosing to invest this time, 1 hour a day for ME! To improve ME, become a better ME and get a clear view of what I want from life and take those steps to make my dreams a reality!

We are given weekly and daily task and to be honest I had no idea how I was going to get them done. Changing the way I was thinking about it gave me freedom to find the time to do them. One of the tasks is to write a weekly Blog, so strap yourselves in and if your game, join me for the ride!! I’M BACK!!! Putting my Blog to good use!! A weekly Blog post for me is reasonably easy and do-able, I enjoy writing, that’s why I started the Blog in the first place, writing consistently is something I did not do but I am looking forward to that.

Our daily task was what was the most challenging for me, I have a very active 4 year old and finding (or making the time) to read & sit still for 30-40mins a DAY, I was like, Holy Moly how and when am I going to do that. And then I realized I am doing this for ME! And I am worth finding/making the time to do this!! So that is exactly what I did!! After making the decision to just do it and make the time for me the next biggest challenge was the evening Readings. I am to read a Scroll from ‘The Greatest Salesman in the World’ by Og Mandino of an evening right BEFORE I go to sleep.

To make reading the LAST thing I do before going to sleep. Now for me that time before sleeping was like “me” time, I scrolled Facebook, Insta, Emails anything I needed to catch up on. I needed to become disciplined and this was probably the hardest part, BUT we are 5 days in and I am actually enjoying the ‘No Screen Time’ right before bed/sleep and I am looking forward to it becoming a new habit.

So, here’s to creating new, healthy habits and the start of my 6 month journey.

Mel xoxo