TSA #14 – Make a mess

Feb 20, 2012 by Ben

I’m a fairly clean person and try to keep things organized.  I think hope I’m not over doing it, but I really like knowing where things are when I need them, so I keep things neat and try not to make big messes as its also usually me who has to clean them up.  Since I can usually find a hundred other things on my list that is above cleaning up, I try not to make big messes.

But this can be a problem.  Sometimes I get too focused on the mess and avoid doing fun things that create that mess.

Sometimes Its just as little as not wanting to cook to avoid having to clean up the post cooking mess.  Or its not wanting to get packed up to go on a fun adventure knowing there will be a big mess to clean up afterwards.

Last night with all my friends and their families, we packed up and headed to the beach too cook dinner and smores over a bonfire at the beach.  I was excited, yet hesitant as I’m the one who has to unpack all camping gear from the garage and load up the Jeep, knowing that I have to put it all away when I get home and clean it all up etc.  These little thoughts get into my head and then I’m not as excited and am frustrated at the work ahead.

But then the mess leads to great fun.   We had an awesome bonfire at the beach.  We cooked chicken and dumplings in the dutch oven over the fire.  Then we had gourmet s’mores with 3 kinds of chocolate treats to choose from.  The kids ran around on the beach, the adults sat around the fire and it was awesome.  It was so awesome.  It was well worth the mess.  And it usually is.

So this week, your Truly Simple  Action is to make a mess.

Start a project you’ve been putting off because of the mess you’ve been wanting to avoid.  Get out the camping gear and take a road trip.  Get out the neatly organized stuff that isn’t serving its purpose being neat and organized and put it to good use.

Make a mess.  Have fun.  Live your life.  There will always be messes to clean up but the best messes are the ones that are the result of great memories being made.  Making memories can be messy, but they are always worth it.

Go make a mess.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:
TSA#1 - Buy a meal for someone who needs it
TSA#2 - Go do something fun
TSA#3 - Enough with the plastic bottles
TSA#4 - Learn something new
TSA#5 - Celebrate Christmas
TSA#6 - Start off the new year with a clean room
TSA#7 - Improve
TSA#8 – Tell someone you love them
TSA#9 – Adopt some grandparents
TSA#10 - Organize your life: Inbox edition
TSA#11 - Try a new local restaurant
TSA#12 – Stop watching one TV show
TSA#13 - Do one thing that needs to be done

 

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TSA #13 – Do one thing that needs to be done

Feb 13, 2012 by Ben

I had a fun weekend.

My wife went to grab something out of the bottom of the hall closet the other day and noticed it was wet.  That’s weird.  There shouldn’t be water in the bottom of the closet.   So I take everything out from down there and lo and behold the carpet is wet.  That’s not good. I also notice some mold on the drywall of the closet.  That’s really not good.

So I assume a water pipe has sprung a leak that runs through the wall of the closet and set out to repair it.  I remove everything from the closet and tear out the carpet and remove the moldy drywall.  Not fun.  I inspect the pipes to find no leak.  That’s not a good sign because now I don’t know where the water is coming from, except that in removing the drywall and such I notice more mold on the other side of the wall, which is where the bathroom is.  So now I am assuming the toilet is leaking and is leaking water into all of the walls around it.  Awesome.  So I remove the toilet and notice a lot of water below it.  I then proceed to remove the toilet, surrounding tile and all of the drywall around it.  Good times.

That was my fun weekend.  It will be a small project to get that all back in working order, but I will get it done.

Second story.  Cut to this morning, and I’m on my way to catch the train to work and I notice my Jeep is driving a bit odd and making a noise when I’m on the freeway.  I have a flat tire.  So I pull over, inspect the damage and set about changing it.  Its not terribly hard, but not super easy either.  But I get it done and make it to the train station to catch the next train.

There are things that we don’t want to do.  Sometimes we can put them off.  Sometimes we are forced to do them.  I was forced to change the tire this morning.  I could have put off the bathroom remodel project til a a later date, but I knew it had to be done, so I did it.

Your Truly Simple Action for this week is to pick out that one thing on your list that you know has to be done and do it.  Pick that one thing that you really don’t want to do.  Pick the one item that has been causing you stress for days, weeks, hopefully not months and just get it done.  Start doing that one thing and you will realize something.  You wil learn that it wasn’t so big and scary as you thought it was.  It will prove to be easier than you had made it out to be in your head.  And when you check off that item from your list you will feel amazing and empowered to conquer anything else that might be on your list.

Whenever we have a list of things to do, we tend to sometimes put the big scary items at the end of the list.  Or we tend to do all the little easy ones first, just dancing around that big one, knowing that we will have to get to it someday.  This is a bad way to do things, because the entire time your mind is thinking about that big item. Its obsessing, worrying, stressing out over that one thing.  We make it into such a big deal that it causes us to be distracted and stressed out until its done.  Don’t do that.

Tackle the big thing first.  Identify that one item that you know you have to do, but have been putting off.  Put a firm deadline on it of sometime this week.  It could take you an hour, or a day, just put a date and time by which you will have it done.  Now go do it.  No more excuses.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:
TSA#1 - Buy a meal for someone who needs it
TSA#2 - Go do something fun
TSA#3 - Enough with the plastic bottles
TSA#4 - Learn something new
TSA#5 - Celebrate Christmas
TSA#6 - Start off the new year with a clean room
TSA#7 - Improve
TSA#8 – Tell someone you love them
TSA#9 – Adopt some grandparents
TSA#10 - Organize your life: Inbox edition
TSA#11 - Try a new local restaurant
TSA#12 – Stop watching one TV show   

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TSA #12 – Stop watching one TV show

Feb 6, 2012 by Ben

This weeks Truly Simple Action is very simple.  Just stop watching one TV show.

You don’t have to stop watching TV completely, although thats not a bad idea.  This week you only need to cut out one show.  Pick a show that you just don’t watch that much any more.  Pick a show that you have several episodes backlogged on your DVR and just stop watching it. Pick a show that you only watch when there is nothing on and that has no redeeming value and just stop watching it.

We just watch too much TV.  I know I go through phases where I watch too much and then I try to scale it back and do other things.

This method helps me do this in small steps.  Just pick one show.  It could be a great show that you really like but somehow haven’t been keeping up with.  That gives you a nice chance to say, obviously its not THAT important or I would be watching it.  So stop watching it.  Or just cut out any silly “reality” show on MTV/VH1/E etc.  And I put reality in quotes because you know it isn’t real.  Its not even close to being real.

So this week, your Truly Simple Action is to pick one show and stop watching it.  Quite an easy task really because its actually requiring you to do no work.

So take that extra time that you have and take a walk or read a book or go do something nice for someone else.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:
TSA#1 - Buy a meal for someone who needs it
TSA#2 - Go do something fun
TSA#3 - Enough with the plastic bottles
TSA#4 - Learn something new
TSA#5 - Celebrate Christmas
TSA#6 - Start off the new year with a clean room
TSA#7 - Improve
TSA#8 – Tell someone you love them
TSA#9 – Adopt some grandparents
TSA#10 - Organize your life: Inbox edition
TSA#11 - Try a new local restaurant

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TSA #11 – Try a new local restaurant

Jan 30, 2012 by Ben

This weeks Truly Simple Action is a fun one. You know that little restaurant down the street that you keep telling yourself to try one of these days?  This week, your Truly Simple Action is to go eat at that restaurant.

This economy is hard for everyone, unless your rich, and 9 times out of 10 I would recommend staying home and cooking something awesome, but this week I’m recommending you go out to eat.  But don’t just go out to eat at some fast food joint or the local chain of whatever restaurant.  Go support a local small business and seek out a small family owned restaurant.  Give your money to the small business and support their restaurant and what they are doing.  Also if you like their food and service go above and beyond and write up a nice little yelp review or recommend it to your friends.

Here is my recommendation:

My wife and I ate at the Yellow Deli yesterday.  I’ve been wanting to try that place for way too long now and we finally went.  It was AMAZING.  The food was so good and the people were really nice.  The cream cheese pie with strawberries was the best thing ever.  They have several locations around the country and I recommend you check them out.

So that is your assignment this week.  Go to that cute little family owned diner down the street and help spread the word about their business.

Ben…

TSA = Truly Simple Actions
The goal of the TSA project is to improve your life and help make this world a better place, one simple action at a time.  Take time this week to do this one simple thing.

Previous TSA’s:
TSA#1 - Buy a meal for someone who needs it
TSA#2 - Go do something fun
TSA#3 - Enough with the plastic bottles
TSA#4 - Learn something new
TSA#5 - Celebrate Christmas
TSA#6 - Start off the new year with a clean room
TSA#7 - Improve
TSA#8 – Tell someone you love them
TSA#9 – Adopt some grandparents
TSA#10 - Organize your life: Inbox edition

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1-A-Week: Week 3 & 4 – Hats and tile

Jan 29, 2012 by Ben

For weeks 3 and 4 of my 1AW project I am donating some old ski hats and giving away some free leftover white ceramic tile.

The tile has been in our house since we moved in 10+ years ago and I dug it out of the garage rafters while cleaning out some stuff the other day.  I don’t need to store it so I’m giving it away on Craigslist so someone can use it on their project.

And we’ve collected way too many winter ski hats over the years and while getting out our ski gear to go skiing the other day I set aside a bunch of hats to donate.

so nice to have the extra room.

Ben…

1AW is a project by which I’m getting rid of at least 1 thing each week that I do not need, want, or use anymore. Doing at least one thing per week helps me reduce the clutter in my life and make room for what is truly important.

What are you getting rid of this week?  Leave a comment and let me know.

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