Of Mice and Men

If you are anything like me, then you usually have this elaborate plan for what you will get done in a week. Oh I will go grocery shopping Monday, work on my paper for next week Wednesday, maybe get a little laundry down Thursday, and maybe drop off some dry cleaning on Friday morning. Also, you will run a couple days, read a book, and call your best friend. 

I would like to term this the of mice and men syndrome. The John Steinbeck novel Of Mice and Men originates from a poem by Robert Burns. The line is “the best laid plains of mice and men, oft go awry.” 

I am a layer of elaborate plans, of ways I strive for self improvement. I like to set these goals, but I never seem to be able to follow through. I consistently search for ways to lay out these plans. Yet I always find some excuse or way to talk myself out of it. Either, oh you can sleep in a little long or that bus won’t make it in time.

I need to do better at pushing myself to achieve goals. It cannot just be acceptable to brush off things that might be inconvenient or not readily apparent how it can help me. One of the big things I have been trying to do, but cannot seem to really get myself going on, is spending less money. Bringing my lunch, getting coffee at home, stopping at one drink at happy hour. All great ideas to cut back a little, but I am really lacking the discipline to do so. 

I am searching for ways to hold myself more accountable for self improvement. I do not think I have locked in on the fool proof strategy quite yet, but I have gotten better. Take something like this blog, in the past it would have fallen off drastically within a week and not be written on within a month. I am now going on something like twenty posts. Not half bad for a guy who usually has his best laid plans go awry. 

I guess I need to focus on gradual change. That should be the goal I think. Maybe bring my lunch one or two days a week, run a couple mornings, buy groceries every week. Let us all focus on little changes and trying to do one thing better each day/week/month. Imagine the changes you can see in 3 months, 6 months, a year, 5 years, or 10 years. It is important to push to be better than we are. 

Well friends, family, odd compatriots, until next time, be safe and make good decisions….