Small things

Change is hard. It requires undoing habits. THAT'S really hard because you have all of these subconscious cues planted all over the place to push you back "onto track." Well, I did something different. I rearranged the bedroom. I just did it. My wife was off making jewelry and I got a wild hair and went to work. I'd had an idea of how I wanted to rearrange the room for a while and just put plan into action. It took all afternoon but, I just about got done before my wife came home. Oh, shit. I never talked it over with her. She may want to kill me. So before she came upstairs, I yelled down, I'll put it back if you don't like it. Fortunately, she liked. And it opened up the room into a bigger feeling space. You walk into an open space where as before you walking in to a path created by the bed and the wall. Gives the room a whole new feel. Bigger. More possibilities. That's why I rearranged. I tried to remove a lot of the cues. Lose the cues and change doesn't get challenged by the innate so much. Change has a better chance if you remove the old guideposts and allow yourself to move to the rhythm of the change and not have to fight the old rhythms.
This change is more mental. Trying to get my mind out of the rut it's rhythm has created. In St.Louis City, when there's serious snow they plow the main streets but, generally not the side streets. If it stays cold enough long enough the passing cars create ruts where the tire tracks the road. You could let go of your steering wheel and let the rut guide you down the street. Pretty funny...until you try to pull out of the rut into a parking space or alley or some turn not often driven on. The rut goes straight down the road but, you want to turn. The ice in the rut just keeps you sliding forward as you turn the steering wheel all the way in the direction you want to go. There's not enough traction to make the car go over the rut and make the turn. Changing around the bedroom was a cut I made in the rut to give the tires a chance to get some traction and complete the turn. There's music down that turn. There's a different city down that turn. There's change down that turn.
It's a new year and it's a good a time as any to make a change. I can feel the tires getting some grip already.