Crack in the Dam

Do you have a crack in your dam?

Look at this picture.  You can see the water spurting out quite dramatically.  Look again and see the big long crack in the concrete.  This crack wasn't always that size.

Here is a quote from Sandra Felton's book Smart Organizing:

"A dam holds back the water until a small hole appears.  That small hole is not going to remain small.  The flow of water will widen until the whole dam is ruined." 

By the time you see this much water spurting out, you have a problem on your hands.  

Fixing all the cracks in the dam of your life can become quite time consuming.  When we fall behind on our routines and organizing, we allow cracks to form in the dam.  If we don't take time to stop and repair the cracks, they will grow.  

A desk left messy at bedtime is a crack in the dam (I'm guilty...more than once!)  If the messy desk is not put back to rights, it fairly begs your family who might not yet have good tidy up habits in place to just put something down on the desk for now... and now it's a bigger mess. The crack in the dam grew.

This can then give way to lost papers (where are they in this stack?  I knew it was here somewhere...), and lost papers give way to things being late, and things being disorganized, etc.

If you are climbing your way through this mess, you might start to get overwhelmed, and leave the laundry in the dryer, or not tidy the kitchen.  

When we leave a crack in the dam, it provides room for that crack to grow, and pretty soon there's new cracks too.  

Why am I telling you this?  

To be honest...the last few days, there are cracks in my dam again.  This blog is about how ALL of us must organize things in our lives every day.  Sometimes we will have strong wins, and other times life will throw you curves that slow your progress.  Its about how we cope with the changes each day that will make the difference.

What causes cracks in the dam?

1. Laziness.  Yup!  It's for real.  Summer is pulling to a close and that back to school routine will start up again, which means I am guilty of yielding to the temptation to hit the snooze alarm right now while I only have myself to get out the door...and if I am hitting the snooze alarm, you gotta know that I am letting certain parts of the morning routine slip.  Bed made? check!  Dishwasher emptied?  No check!

2. Interruptions/Distractions.  Too many fun summer social events that run too late into the evening, extra visits with friends and family, a great summer read, a cool movie or a some awesome new skill you decided to learn.  The possibilities are endless.  If we are not conscious of the time honestly required for our routines, we might not respect the time needed to get them done.

3. Overwhelmed.  Sometimes cracks in the dam are caused by the sense of being overwhelmed.  You have the usual to do, and now cracks in the dam to fix.  Sometimes you tell yourself to just forget it and gear down for a bit and go to bed. 

What is the fix? 

We return to our core values and core competencies.  

Remember this one always...our values dictate our behaviour, not the other way around.  If we value caring for our families, ourselves, being organized to reduce stress and be free for the things we value pursuing...we find motivation to fix the cracks and work towards preventing new cracks.

Our core competencies are the skills in your daily routine you can do almost automatically.  Go back to your habits.  Try to complete the new habits you might have added that you want to do that improve your daily life. 

It's much harder to hit that snooze alarm when you think about the family you love and value and the good things you want to do with your life that you place high value on, and realize that an old habit like a snooze alarm will wreak havoc on parts of your day and undermine the people and things you love and value most.

Here is a reminder that you can stop the cracks in the dam, and diligently work towards preventing new ones.

You can do it!

Thanks for reading.

Cassie