I just now picked up the piles of papers and folders on my desk and put them all on the floor of my office.  Wow- what an immediate energy boost!   I’ll be right back.

Okay, 'back again.  After using that energy boost to write the first line of this tip sheet, I then sorted everything on the floor into appropriate file folders or the recycling bag!

I didn’t allow anything back on the valuable real estate of my desktop unless it’s something I know I'll need within the next 48 hours.

Now that I can see my desktop (which is light brown! who knew?!), I’m ready to
tackle the one thing I keep putting off:  organizing my tax receipts!  I have a great accountant; but I still need to find everything-ugh!

Is there something  YOU keep putting off because you dread even the thought of doing it? Then follow me and let's climb these 4 steps together:

Step 1: De-clutter your immediate surroundings to get an immediate energy boost.

Step 2:  Put a big smile on your face (do that right now!)

Step 3: Tell yourself that what you have to do is easy.

This is the most important step of all because as the French writer Emile Coue said,(although he probably said it in French),

"Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will become so."

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy:  If you think something will be hard, it will BE hard, because we never prove ourselves wrong.

I caught myself thinking, “I hate doing taxes. I’m terrible at adding up numbers. It’s hard finding all those deductions. I hate, hate, hate it!!”

And that’s why I kept putting it off.  I had turned a rather mundane task into a huge struggle by labeling it "hard."

Today, I’m telling myself, “It’s easy getting these receipts together.  Adding numbers is easy !"   And I’m going to keep saying it’s easy until it becomes so!

I'm even going to listen to "Take It Easy” by The Eagles and “Easy (like Sunday Morning)” by Lionel Ritchie!

When you perceive a task as “easy” instead of “hard,” that thought pulls you out of The Whining Zone (where any task is twice as difficult) and puts you in The Positive Zone.® 

”It’s our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.”  William James

So right now, think of a difficult task you’ve been putting off because you think it will be unpleasant or hard to accomplish. Do you need to:

         Write a report? Deliver a speech? Ask for a pay increase or job transfer? 
         Discuss a problem with an employee ?  Study for an exam? 

No matter what it is. just smile and say out loud to yourself:  “It’ll be easy!” 

But; don’t just think, “It’ll be easy” and then TAKE it easy!!  

Step 4:  Do it NOW! 

Positive thinking only works if you actually take action.  You can't just sit around and think, "I don't need to study for the exam because it'll be easy!" 

You need to think, "If I study for the exam right now, then it will be easy!"

The longer you put something off, the more unpleasant it becomes.

The longer you delay preparing for the speech, writing the report, or asking for a promotion, the more reasons you will come up with for NOT doing it.

Delay increases your fear; action eliminates it.

As usual, I’m going to follow my own advice (we teach what we need to learn) and get working NOW on my taxes because, hey! it’ll be easy!!

Until next month……Remember: it really is easy, and stay in The Zone!

 Susan