Get off the Couch!

We are all too familiar with the dangers of inaction. One day my car is clean and through a series of non active days, a little bit of lethargy kicks in and before I know it, lethargy becomes depression and then my car is .....well...... you really don't want to know how messy my car was a week ago. You see I had let the "news of the day" get to me over a period of a few months and just started to let things go. I finally got fed up with myself, the downward spiral I was in and was fed up with the news and my reaction to it. That's when I decided to kick myself into high gear and just start DOING. I cleaned my car, I cleaned my office, I did spring cleaning of my kitchen and bathrooms and then one thing led to another. Before I knew it I was studying my Italian lessons again, learning about blogging, making new advertising brochures for myself and just feeling better in general.

Well, maybe you have never experienced depression before, but it is all too easy to let the news of the day start a downward spiral.

My advice is to GET OFF THE COUCH!

No matter what is going on with your business or personal life, there is no good that comes from watching television or sitting around on your behind.

Start each day with purpose and if you can't find any purpose, just start cleaning and organizing everything around you. Get rid of the old stuff that is dragging you down. Don't let the past and the memories of the past get "in your face". Look straight ahead, forward because whatever "this economy" is now, IT WILL NOT BE THAT WAY FOREVER.
Prepare yourself today for a better tommorow.

My father used to quote to me the following:


Count That Day Lost

If you sit down at set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find One self-denying deed,
one word That eased the heart of him who heard,
One glance most kind That fell like sunshine where it went --
Then you may count that day well spent.
But if, through all the livelong day,
You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay --
If, through it all You've nothing done that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face--
No act most small That helped some soul and nothing cost
Then count that day as worse than lost.
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

My dear father, Michael Morier, passed away just before Mothers Day last year. I did not attend his funeral because my own children would spend that Mothers Day camping with me (after some undue separation from them) and I made a difficult choice not to go. I am constantly remembering the words "count that day lost" that he would say and I understand how those words helped him in his life.
Here was a man, who at one point was at the very bottom of the barrel, so to speak, with nothing to call his own, his children far away from him, a long history of self abuse and over time he changed his life.
It was not in one day that he changed his life. It was not in one week or one month. It was by doing a little bit of something each day.
I love line at the end of the movie "Cast-away", when Tom Hanks says something like......"the sun will rise". It is true that each day comes and goes and we have a choice to do something each day.
I found out that as I am studying Italian just a tiny bit each day, I am learning to speak Italian. I found out that by being an "entrepreneur" each and every day for the past 15 or so years that I have gained enough knowledge over time to call myself a knowledgable business consultant and coach.
I learn a little bit each day.
When I let the news of the day, or nay saying friends or family bring me down, it is all too easy to fall into a mild depression, which can soon turn into a deep depression.
Read the poem again and ask yourself how you can help others by helping yourself.
It's of utmost importance to DO SOMETHING each and every day, even if it's just washing the dishes or tidying up a bit. The little things we do each day give us energy to do the bigger things. When we "feel tired", or lazy or lethargic or stop caring about things it is just so so so EASY TO GET OUT OF THAT FEELING. (My son would say I am shouting, so I apologize for that! I am just beginning to learn about bloggging and such!)
The way to get out of the feeling of sadness and depression (no matter what you are sad about!) is to do something. You've GOT to take care of yourself, your surroundings and the people you love, otherwise things could get even worse, because just as you can build wonderful things little by little, moment by moment, day by day, week by week, month by month, so too can you build devastation in your life. If you've already gotten to the bottom, there's only one way out and that it UP! If you're half way down the bottom of the barrel, well then you are half way UP too!
Choose Life. Choose Action.