Introducing: 31 Days of Don't Think...Just Do.

 

 

Don’t think, just do.

I have developed a love | hate relationship with this phrase. It’s one of my husband’s favorites. Any time I start whining about a task taking too long, or being too tedious, or too daunting, I hear “C’mon babe, don’t think just do.” It’s his way of saying mind over matter, combined with a little it won’t be so bad once you start it.

My husband is the king of “don’t think, just do.” He is so great at just tackling projects head-on. He is motivated, driven, and fearless. These are some of the traits I love most about him - he is rarely paralyzed by a fear of doing something wrong, or worrying about it taking too long. He just does it. This is why our master bathroom has been completely gutted for the past 2 years. We made the decision one night that we wanted to redo it, so the very next day he just ripped the whole thing apart.

I, on the other hand, am the world’s biggest procrastinator. I’m paralyzed by the “what if’s.” I will decide to do a project, will buy all the materials, and then everything just sits in a closet for months (or years) waiting for attention. I will have “call butcher about meat order” on my To Do list for weeks (or months sometimes) instead of taking the 5 minutes to call. Why do I do this? It drives my husband NUTS and frustrates him to no end. It also makes me an unreliable person. It’s not fair to him that I tell him I will take care of something and then not do it. It makes me dishonest, and makes him feel like he can’t rely on me. That’s not the kind of wife I want to be. Remember that bathroom I was telling you about? Yep, still waiting for me to pick out tile and a tub so we can get started putting it all back together.

 

I have spent a lot of time contemplating why I do this. (Trust me, I am a pro at pondering. It's just the execution where I fall short.) I don’t want to put things off anymore. I'd like to have a master bathroom we can use before we eventually sell our house. I'd like to be able to tell my husband "Yes, I'll take care of that" and not see the doubt on his face.

 

Here’s what I think: Fear.

 

Fear is stopping me from reaching probably 95% of my goals.

 

I’ll do it wrong and ruin it and will waste lots of time/money/energy on nothing.

 

It will take too long. I shouldn’t start it because there’s no possible way I can do the whole thing in the tiny bit of time I have to work on a project.

 

I'm going to use this 31 day challenge to tackle my fears head-on and accomplish something. A lot of my goals are project-focused -- crafts I bought materials for and never did, minor renovations/upcycles I've been wanting to tackle, things like that -- but I'm also going to try to really hone in on some of the goals I've kept hidden away in that closed-off place in my heart that I'm too afraid to share with actual people.

 

Thank you so much for coming along with me on this journey. It should be one heck of a ride :)