Small Steps: The Beginning

In early December, my brain was a churning mass of divergent tendrils of thought, most of them not positive. (My brain never works quite as well when my Prince isn't home to serve as a sounding bound and perspective orienter.)

Among the chaos were the following ideas:

I really need to find an alternative to the Mary Kay products I was using since I'm (finally!) almost done using them up.

I wonder if I can dye my hair myself without making an ungodly mess. I need to remember a lot more often that I'm not in food service any more – I could be doing a lot more creative stuff than I am.

There is a ridiculous amount of information in circulation as accepted fact that is terribly wrong and ignorant. It's rather disgusting how much I simply don't know. Sigh. Why do I read so much?

New year, new house projects. So much I want to do! Why didn't I get any patience genes?

I really freaking hate reading the news headlines these days... the world is such a mess at such high levels.

As overwhelming and frustrating as those thoughts often were, I've never really been a despair kind of girl. So, after letting stuff swirl around and ferment together for a bit, my brain kicked out its usual response: “Okay. How do we fix it?”

Somehow, all those tangents distilled and coalesced into one idea: start small.

Obviously I'm not going to “fix” the world, but the answer to improving any situation is to start with yourself and the world within your own four walls. So in 2013, I'm challenging myself take small steps. I'm going to reassess with fresh eyes the things I take for granted about my habits and my home, and then do my homework. Is there a reason why something is the way it is, or can I make a small change somewhere and do it better?

Image borrowed from here.

Some changes will be physical, replacing products or habits with alternatives that are a better fit for my life and how I want to live. Others will be mental – how I look at or value something. I expect to pick up new skills along the way, do a TON of investigative reading, and engage in a little trial and error. I'll track this journey here on the blog in hopes that some of what I learn helps other people make positive changes in their lives as well. I'll label all posts related to this theme with the tag Small Steps.

I've made the first couple Small Steps already, so look for more blog posts related to this soon!

PS - If I'd gotten this started sooner, Eric's LED post from last week would probably have fit neatly under this category!