Day 6: How to Feel Good...

She was SOOOOO annoying.

And I'm still learning from her 25 years later...

In 2000 I paid $2,000 to Coach Teri-e Belf to be in her coaching program.  

One thing she did that would drive me nuts was go slow.  We'd talk about one thing at a time and creep our way through our topic list for each of eight sessions.

"Ok, Ok, OK," I'd be thinking as she spoke and asked questions.  I already had a Ph.D. and was a tenured professor, so I knew much of what she was teaching me already (or so I thought).

"I get it, let's move on" said young Padawan Tom.

Then, ...

...one day she picked up on my impatience, so she put a $100 bill on her desk and had me stand on the other side of the room.

"You can have this $100," she said, "if you just walk over here and get it."

No problem!

"The only rule," she added, "is that you have to take your second step first."

Problem!

My brain went on tilt and quickly realized the obvious: any step I take is my first.

And we went back to the coaching topic we were on.  Slow and relaxed.

And as usual, we covered everything we needed to with plenty of time to spare.

The How to Be Happy lesson: Patiently focus on one thing at a time. 

As we fully engage in one task or moment, we succeed more, and winning feels good.    

("One Pitch at a Time" was the original title of Heads-Up Baseball.)

Imagine each task as a grain of sand moving one at a time through an hour glass.  Each one gets its turn, and gets on through, until the whole pile is done.

I've got lots I want to do today.  And I'll, to the best of my ability, do them one at a time. 

This email got to you because it got to the top of my list (or to the skinny, one-at-a-time part of my inner hour glass) and I've stayed on this one thing until I hit send.

Play with being conscious of doing one thing at a time today.  It's how we do it physically anyway, but we usually aren't deliberate about it, like Coach Belf.

Playing small is Playing Big,

Dr. Tom