Setting yourself Up for FAILURE

I decided that today I wanted to talk about failure. Why in the world would anyone ever want to actually talk about failure? It is something that happens to everyone but no one wants to admit it. I HAVE FAILED to follow through with my morning routine because I have set myself up for failure. How I did that was by thinking that I would have no issues getting up at 6am everyday and completing a few chores and a workout. I currently feel like I just set a new years resolution to lose 50 pounds in 2 months or to have a new job making 6 figures by the end of the week (without any skills). So now that I have admitted I am not following through with my plan, what do I do? I try again. I get back onto the horse scarred or not and I ride again. However, I first need to fix the reasons for my failure.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.  ~Elbert Hubbard

Have you ever noticed how resilient kids are? About a year ago my daughter was in a gymnastics class at The Little Gym. I loved taking her to class just to watch her. She would get up on the big balance beam and practically run all the way to the end and then leap off. If she fell, she would look around, get up and go back to the start of the beam. As a parent I was so proud of her for trying again. As an adult I wish I could be more like her. Most adults will admit their failures and then give up. However, in giving up, they make an even larger failure than the setback they faced to begin with. The innocence of a child is what allows them to unknowingly fail and keep going. They don’t understand the meaning behind failure or the consequences that might occur from giving up. However, the pain of life lessons and rejection cause most adults to quit before they can be hurt again. Thus creating that larger failure I mentioned before.

I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.  ~Thomas Edison

Now I need to reexamine my goals and how I can achieve them without giving up. Why did I fail to begin with? This is the part in today’s blog where I will be giving all the woe is ME’s and excuses for why I haven’t been following though. If you don't want to read my whining then skip to the next section or forever hold your peace.

My plan currently looks like this:

1. Wake up (6am)/make coffee/watch some news

2. Put a load of laundry in the Washer/Exercise

3. Shower/Dress/Make bed
4. Wake up my girls and make Breakfast
5. Clean up Breakfast dishes

My first excuse is that 6am is very, very early when you have a teething baby who goes to bed at 2am. With this being the first step I feel like my whole routine is thrown off when I hit the snooze button. Instead of just doing the routine when I do finally get up, I don’t do anything at all. This next part isn’t so much an excuse as it is a solution. I believe I may have given myself too much to do right off the start. The tip I was given was to have 5 things that you can do every morning. I have 10. Now that I have an idea what may have caused my failure, I can now decide what to do about fixing it.

I CAN DO THIS!



If you're doing your best, you won't have any time to worry about failure.  ~Quoted in P.S. I Love You, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

This will be my new plan......

1. Wake up (7am)

2. Put a load of laundry in the Washer

3. Exercise

4. Shower/Dress

5. Wake up my girls and make Breakfast

As I get better at sticking with my routine and as things come up I can and probably will add things to my plan. I think if I take baby steps and stick with this small routine, things will begin to fall into place for me and my family.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.  ~Bill Cosby

My First Morning of Routine

Good Morning Readers!!!!

I would like to start off by saying that almost immediately after yesterday’s blog post I was already energized and ready to start this new routine. Maybe this accountability thing is what I have needed all along. I found myself cleaning the area around my computer. I actually cleaned up all the empty soda bottles and cans, threw away the garbage on the desk (and under it), put all the plates, bowls, glasses and silverware in the sink and vacuumed. I know right?! I can’t believe that as I type this I can actually see the desk and put my feet on the floor without stepping on anything! I just hope the excitement doesn’t wear off too soon….

Now onto the reason for today’s blog; how did my first morning go?

Morning one of week one has gone better than I expected. I actually look forward to getting up alone again tomorrow morning. This time to myself has been very relaxing and I can't think of a better way to start my day than with some rare peace and quiet.

Last night, I set my alarm for 6am (@ 1:30am), cleared some space in the living room for my workout and went to bed. When my alarm went off today I only hit the snooze button once. Even though I was dying to turn it off and stay in bed I didn’t. I used a little self-control and actually got up at 6:15am. The first thing I did was put a load of cloths in the washer. If I didn’t do this first I probably wouldn’t do it at all. Then I got my coffee, filled up my water bottle and turned on the news. Which I found to be a little boring since its Sunday and the Today show isn’t on. So I decided it was time for my workout. We have kinect for xbox 360 and I like Your Shape Fitness Evolved. I just recently downloaded an update called bolly-dancing and decided to try that out today. Now as I sit here telling you all about my morning...my arms hurt. At least its for a good reason.

The next step on my morning routine is to shower and get dressed, then wake up the girls and make breakfast. I am going to make some corned beef hash and eggs for everyone (today is Sunday) and then while they are eating I will make my way to the shower. Gotta love the weekends when my husband is home in the mornings. I already feel like today to going to be an awesome day! I might even feel a little inspired to do more cleaning than I had planned.

All about me and why I'm starting a blog

So.....I suppose I should start by introducing myself and what I plan to blog about. I am currently a stay-at-home mother and wife....wait a minute.....that sounds a tad bit boring right? WRONG! Being a stay at home parent is a lot more exciting and harder than you might think. Of course no one realises that (Not even me) until you are already in too deep. I'm not saying that staying home is terrible, however its not for everyone. To date I have been home for 4 years (with 2 part time jobs and 9 months of schooling mixed in there somewhere). My house is still a desaster area, I dont do a ton of cooking, and my 2 young children (and myself) are still not on any kind of schedule. Hense the reason for the beginning of this blog.

Most of my day right now is spent recovering from the previous night of staying up late with my 15 month old instead of cleaning like I should be doing. Does she sleep through the night (You might be asking yourself)? The answer is yes she does....the problem is getting her to go to sleep. Around 1 or 2 in the morning when she is finally asleep, I'm wide awake because I'm finally alone. If that sounds like an excuse to be a poor houskeeper....IT IS. I happen to be one of the best excuse makers I have ever met. I am planning on stopping that now. I need to start holding myself accountable and start living by the example I should be setting, instead of just dreaming of it. So whats the big question here then......

WHERE DO I START?!

After many failed attempts to become a better stay-at-home parent I have come to the realization that I never had any accountability. This is where my (hopefull) readers will come to play a part in my life. Beginning tomorrow I am going to start following some tips I read on http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ about bugeting my time. For the next 3 weeks I am going to begin by stating a morning routine. Which is one of the tips from http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

 "I’d encourage you to begin by writing down five things you want to do in the same order every morning and commit to getting up and doing these first thing every morning for three weeks."

My morning routine will look like this to start with:

1. Wake up (6am)/make coffe/watch some news (I need some time to myself durring the day)
2. Put a load of laundry in the Washer/Excercise(I need to take control of my laundry pile and lose the baby weight still)
3. Shower/Dress/Make bed
4. Wake up my girls and make Breakfast
5. Clean up Breakfast dishes

In the course of these next 3 weeks I'm sure there will be days that I dont feel like getting up, or working out, or doing dishes...However, I will still get up, and work out, AND do the dishes. I am hoping that if I can stick with this plan I will be the organized mom I have always wanted to be. I may not end up perfect, but I can still try to do my best. Starting tomorrow I will beging creating the new me. Any and all tips and polite constructive critisim is welcome. Here goes nothing!