Never Give Up! By The FlyLady, Marla Cilley
This morning I woke up with these words on my mind; Never Give Up! What I have noticed over the years is that we give up before we ever get started. This has me thinking about why we do this. I am just going to write till I figure this out. I am not going to give up on you. The answer lies within each of us and all we have to do is figure out this little puzzle.
We have been beaten down for years because of our personalities. We are creative, spontaneous lovers of life. We don't fit the born organized mode. Yet we were probably raised by someone who wanted to make us conform to their way of thinking. That was never going to happen but that didn't stop them from trying.
In their efforts to make us fit their ideal of how we should think they called us names and punished us. We were told we were lazy and were day dreamers. We were accused of being stupid for not thinking like them. If the truth were really known; we are probably much more intelligent than those who tried to beat us down and they were afraid of our creativity and joy. I can't even imagine being scared to have fun! I think you can understand this deep down in your soul. In fact I feel sorry for them. How sad that they did not realize that it take all of us to make this world revolve!
If all of us thought alike there would be no diversity; no new ideas. Just the same old boring thing, day after day; no smiles just stress. Now the tears are starting to come. Those precious little children were told that they were not worthy of being loved unless they fit into that mold. This was not said out loud but we all knew that if we didn't perform to their standards we would be punished. In the scientific world this is called conditioning. In pet terms we were being trained to follow their commands even when they didn't say what they really wanted.
All we ever wanted was to feel loved. If we could not be loved for who we are we would settle for any kind of attention. They told us if we can't do it right don't do it at all. We were force to repeat task after task till it was right. Even then it probably was not good for them and we were left feeling unloved and punished.
All these years of conditioning has gotten us to where we are today; defeated before we ever get started. Our negative thinking that was put in our heads by people who thought they were doing what was right and this was how they were taught. This is why I feel sorry for them. We can learn to be organized because we can make it game and have fun with it. We have to ability to keep changing things with our creativity so we don't get bored. We don't have to push for perfection when good enough is good enough.
I am your cheerleader. I don't want you to give up before you get started. Let's think of this in computer terms. Your operating system has been corrupted by negative thinking. All we have to do is a virus sweep of those bugs that have been causing you to not have fun. When we eliminate the bugs we can accomplish more than we ever dreamed possible.
When I got up this morning the words to a Ryan Shupe song were running through my head. I looked up the words to "Never Give Up" online and listened to them on my Dream Big CD. This whole CD is inspiring. Please don't give up!
Never Give Up!
For more help getting rid of your CHAOS; check out her website and join her free mentoring group at www.FlyLady.net or her book, Sink Reflections published by Bantam and her New York Times Best Selling book, Body Clutter published by Fireside. Copyright 2008 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.
The Adventures of the House Fairy
She FLIES, she SPIES and she leaves a SURPRISE
by the House Fairy
I was up super early this morning with the birds. Actually I ran into flock of seagulls. I asked them which way they were headed and it turned out they were going my way so I sprinkled some magic fairy dust on them and made them small as a swarm of bees and I let them nestle down in my comfy hair where they could take a rest.
I landed in Florida at Jimmy Partridge's house just after he left for school. All my fast flying paid off. I had quite a few bedrooms to inspect before school got out. Jimmy's mom was busy baking a chocolate cake so I just flew up the stairs.
I started with his sister, Paige's, room because it is much quicker. I looked around and sure enough, her room was spotless as usual. I put her two concert tickets under her pillow. Boy is she ever going to be surprised.
Then I took a deep breath and entered Jimmy's room. Well, all I can say is it DID look a little better than it had the last time I was there. I wanted so much to leave him his Official Day Off Chores coupon but I can never break my own rules, one of which is to not leave surprises in a room where I cannot even see the floor. There were clothes everywhere. They looked so sad, just lying there, all dirty.
"I'm really sorry you haven't had a bath this week," I told them, pinching my nose, trying my best not to look impolite. I didn't want to continue holding my nose so I put a clothespin on it. I tried to make it look like it was part of my Florida Vacation outfit so I used a bright pink one. It matched my pink and purple flowered shorts and tee shirt. "I'm sure Jimmy wouldn't like to go an entire week without a bath!"
Just then my magic fairy dust wore off and the seagulls returned to their normal size and were they ever thrilled to be in Jimmy's bedroom! The head seagull said, "Hey thank you House Fairy, you delivered us right to a landfill!"
"Unfortunately this is Jimmy's bedroom and you guys need to fly along," I said as I opened the window so they could fly away. Just then all kinds of toys came running out of everywhere. I was caught by such surprise that I stepped backwards onto a toy dump truck and skidded into a pile of dirty clothes.
"Where did you come from?" I asked the toy cars and boats.
"We've been hiding from Jimmy," the little red car explained. "He never puts us back in our home spot when he's finished playing with us so we all decided to hide from him."
"And we help," the clothes said.
"I covered up his favorite action figure last week and made him look for two hours to find it," a blue shirt said. "I've been lying around this floor for the past two weeks so I figured I may as well do something constructive."
Just then a wrestling action figure limped over. "I've been hiding from Jimmy for almost a month now," he said. "He left me laying in the bathroom floor after he took me swimming in the tub with him and his father stepped on me. Owwww! It STILL hurts! You have no idea how it feels to be stepped on by a giant!"
"I'm really sorry that you toys are so unhappy," I told them. I felt very sad for them because some of my very best friends are toys.
"It's not fair that Jimmy gave you a bath and not us," a pair of jeans with dirt stains on the knees said to the action figure. "I've needed a bath ever since his last soccer practice!"
I could see how unhappy Jimmy's entire room was.
"I'll make you a deal," I told the toys. "I will come back and check in a couple days and if you are still not put back in the places that make you happy, then I will take you to visit the woods with me for awhile until Jimmy gets things under control here."
"Oh, I would love that!" shouted the wrestling figure, jumping up and down on one leg.
"So, if I don't get put back on my favorite shelf by then I can go to your house for a vacation?" another action figure asked.
"Yesiree," I promised him.
"And if I don't get to sleep in my comfy cozy toy bag I can go too?" asked the little red car.
"Yes sir!" I agreed.
I had to hurry on my way before school got out but I left Jimmy a note asking him to please put his clothes in the hamper so that they could get a good bath. I also let him know that his toys would stop hiding from him if he put them back in their own places where they were happiest when he was finished with them.
The House Fairy uses children's gift of imagination to empower them to behave, help around the house and keep a neat and tidy room. The House Fairy helps parents to motivate, inspire, reinforce and recognize their children's good behavior in a positive and loving way. You can meet the House Fairy at www.housefairy.org © copyright 2008 Pamela I. Young
