Francesco Georg's Blog

How do you eat an elephant? As the moto goes, one bite at a time, but today I discovered that perhaps the more appropriate answer is “swallow the whole frick’n thing”

I was browsing some blog articles out of boredom and found one on new years resolutions and how to make a resolution that will stick. I was intrigued by the idea of over-the-top commitment, a philosophy similar to the military’s use of overwhelming force.

I got to thinking about what I’d like to change in my own life and realized that I’ve always been a disorganized slob. My room’s constantly a mess. It sometimes feels like the general disarray that I leave behind me wherever I go is a part of who I am.

I looked around and in a moment of inspiration thought to clean my room. I didn’t really know where to start so I cosulted google. I got “How to clean your room” and “How to clean you room, fast.” I realized that this wasn’t going to cut it. Sure I could force myself through an online tutorial, but there was a bigger fundamental problem — that I am — was? — a messy person. That’s what I really needed to clean up.

So I refined my search: “How to become an organized person.” Yahoo answers gave me a couple obvious answers, but I felt like my own computer had joined the ranks of nagging mothers. My two personal favorite anwsers were “Stob being such a slob” and “Get a girlfriend.”

But there seemed to be more behind this transformation than a simple “just do it.” I was struggling with the question “how?” and worse, “why?” So I opened up a text editor — vim cuz I’m a nerd — and began:

“I want to become an organized and neat person.

I am disorganized.

why is this a problem? why do I want to change that?”

I continued a dialog with myself until I found the motivation, how, and why for my whole plan.

The rest of the day, I spent cleaning my room more thoroughly than I ever have in my life.

I think the most important part for me was finding internal motivation and figuring out why a change is important to me.

But I really feel that by making this change now, I will improve my life and save lots of time/energy in the long run.