Uncategorized – Page 2 – tallgirltinysteps

November 20, 2022. Ask a question

Last week at work, I had a misunderstanding with a colleague. After a few days of stewing, I finally decided to ask why this particular issue was happening. It was so insightful. There was a deep history behind the decision that ultimately affected me.

A tiny question. A tiny clarification. In a few tiny moments, I understood. I felt better. I relaxed, accepted it, and moved on. So simple and so tiny.

So this week I encourage you to ask a question if you don’t understand something. It may be a really complex issue. It may have nothing to do with you. You may be the end result of a lot of other decisions. OR it MAY have something to do with you that you need to change. However, you cant feel better by avoiding it. Another colleague said (at lunch) nothing gets better with avoidance and she is right.

Thank you to my 96 followers! My new book is available on Amazon under Jessica Riley Beebe. The kindle version just launched a few days ago!

Get your copy of Tiny Actions Big Results today!

November 13, 2022. Be kind-it is a little thing that can make a big difference.

Kindness is a tiny action. Its baking a potpie for a neighbor who has been traveling. Its picking up some groceries for you wife while she is on her way home. Its complimenting someone on a new hairdo, car, outfit. Its writing an Amazon review for a book or product that you enjoyed. Its saying “thank you” or “I’m sorry” to someone.

Kindness is one of the original tiny actions. It is often overlooked in the hustle and bustle of life-especially in the holiday season where everyone seems to be rushing around.

So as we approach the holidays, I challenge all of you (myself included) to find tiny ways to be kind to others. It doesn’t have to cost money. It doesn’t have to be planned out. It just needs to come from your heart. Making others smile should be one of our biggest goals every day.

To my 96 followers-THANK YOU! To everyone that is following me because of my new book-THANK YOU! The ebook should be on Amazon by tomorrow! Have a great week! Stay tiny.

November 9, 2022 My book has arrived!!!!!!

2-3 years of daily notes. Countless hours of reading and experimenting. All the tiny little actions that I tried, discarded, tried again, kept, improved. They have all led me here! My book is here! It is on Amazon! It is an accomplishment that is both exciting and scary.

You can either search Jessica Riley Beebe in the Amazon search bar or follow this link https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Actions-Big-Results-Together/dp/B0BLGDR9R8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35LYDEF8R716P&keywords=jessica+riley+beebe&qid=1668034764&sprefix=jessica+riley+beebe%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-1

I have already given one speech. I am booked to give another one in a month. Some authors may dread this. I find it exhilarating. Thank you to all the people that purchase a copy of the book, read this blog, email me Congrats! I appreciate all of you dearly.

To my husband who has been a source of encouragement from the beginning-THANK YOU!

To my sister who has taken up the social media side of being an author-THANK YOU!

To the others that have encouraged and helped me-THANK YOU!

To those that criticize-is it perfect? Probably not. Will you find an error? Maybe. Is my life full of ease and comfort because I have everything figured out? No. But guess what? I tried. And anyone who tries to do something to help people in this world is just fine by me. I can sleep at night knowing I tried.

My next book is in the works. Stay tuned and stay tiny! To my 94 followers-thank you and have a great week!

October 30,2022 Maintenance is just as important as tiny steps

When working on achieving a goal, most of us want to make progress at it every day. We tend to become impatient and want things RIGHT NOW (Hello, Amazon!) However, maintaining progress is just as important so that we make keep charging ahead when we are able. We don’t want to wind up completely back at the start and lose all of our hard work!

I had a step goal of 10000 steps by November 6, 2022. I am holding steady at an average of 9000 steps per day. I could beat myself up and be discouraged. Instead, I am choosing to look at where I came from (7000 steps a day) and realize that I have held this number for a few weeks now. (I have even made it to 11000 on a couple days!) So, I am going to focus on maintaining it (I would try to increase it but right now, 9000 feels difficult for me so I want to wait until it feels a bit easier).

This maintenance is important. It is important to stay here and not slide back to 7000. or even 8000. It is important to not lose all of the hard work I have been putting in and the progress I have made.

A burst I have been working on is “no candy, sweets or desserts until Halloween.” Well, Halloween is tomorrow and I feel kind of “meh” about indulging in sweets tomorrow. I have felt pretty good the last 20 days and I am not sure that I want that to go away. There have been tempting moments but overall, it hasn’t been too bad. So, I may pick a day to indulge (Thursday night cheesecake factory) and then wait again until Thanksgiving.

Also, I may reduce how much bread I am eating. I am not ready to go full keto ( I love bread and missed it so much during my keto diet time). However, my husband suggested that maybe I could cut down how much I eat. So this week I will count all the pieces of bread I eat (chips and tortilla shells count) to evaluate where I should place my goal using tiny steps. For example, if I am eating 5 pieces a day, I will not reduce it down to zero but maybe reduce it to 3 instead? I will keep you posted on this.

To my 90 followers, THANK YOU! Have a great week!

October 23, 2022. You should have people over to your house every once in a while…

I am an introvert. The longer I am on this earth, the more I am convinced of this fact. It does not mean that I hate people. Instead it means that I need time away from people to get my energy back. My husband is the opposite. He LOVES being around people and that is what energizes him.

Being married involves compromise and my husband would love to have people at our house every night and every weekend, celebrating something. I would rather just have the quiet. So in true compromising fashion, he winds up going to the houses of other people sometimes and other times we have people to our house.

Today is one of the days we are having people over. It is an NFL Sunday and we live in Michigan. People are coming over for the Detroit Lions game. They are eating, drinking, and having fun. I have been cleaning for over an hour. So has he. Normally, our house is very tidy but little things can tend to get away from you sometimes. When you have people over, you see your house with fresh eyes. Here are some examples.

The coffee grounds around the coffee maker. (They don’t bother me, but it looks dirty)

The kitchen sink is uncluttered but could be wiped down.

The stove has come crusty bits on it from a pot that boiled over.

The mirror in the bathroom needs cleaned.

The kitchen rug could use a vacuum.

The crockpot (which is clean) needs to be put away.

Little things that don’t bother my husband and I but need to be attended to before we have company. Some of you might argue that if they are truly our friends, they won’t care. That is true. I don’t think they would care, but I care. And the house looks a lot cleaner all of the sudden with just these few items being taken care of.

So suck it up and have some people every now and then. Your house will thank you!

Thank you to my 90 followers! Hope you have a happy and healthy week!

Oct 16, 2022 The problem with tiny actions

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that I praise the “tiny steps, habits, actions” way of accomplishing goals and tasks.

So what is the problem? When you think that something is so tiny, you sometimes stop doing it. I haven’t felt well this week (school crud that everyone has), so I haven’t attended to all the little steps that I talk about. And here is what happened.

My sink is full of dishes.

The laundry is washed and dried but just sitting on top of the dryer.

I found a chair to put clothes on that need to be hung up and now they have filled the chair.

The dining table is covered in stuff.

The coffee table is covered in stuff.

My bathroom has stuff all over the counter.

My suitcase from the weekend is still packed.

I have shoes in every room that need to be returned to the closet.

So I started working on the house this morning when I woke up and in 30 minutes, I am still no where near done with picking up all of these areas. The sink is full of even more dishes because I made beef stew. The laundry is now on our bed but there is more that is washing as I type. The clothes still need to be hung. The dining table is halfway cleared. The coffee table is cleared and the shoes are returned to the closet. The suitcase is unpacked.

It feels overwhelming. It makes me grumpy. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I CAME UP WITH MY SYSTEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!! Instead of resting today, I feel as though I have a lot to do to get the house ready for the week. This week I will put the tiny little systems back into place and get things back on track.

To my 90 followers-THANK YOU! What tiny little actions do you focus on to keep your life together?

My book is still being edited (it is taking longer than I thought) but I will put the link here as soon as I have it!

Oct 2, 2022 Don’t move too quickly

I wanted to have an average of 8500 steps a day this week and next week. However, this week is a funeral and parent teacher conferences. The time after school will not be my own. Therefore, I will do the best I can but I will also give myself some grace during a tough week.

One small tip, since I won’t have time to workout after school, is that I will park farther away and will walk to the farthest bathroom at my school. Every little bit counts. If I park in the farthest parking spot away from the door, it adds an additional 250 steps a day to my step count. Over a week that will add up to 1250. That is an extra two miles per month without doing anything else.

These little steps matter. Keep that in mind.

To my 89 followers, have a great week!

Sept 26-cleaning out the garage with tiny actions

We moved into our new house in the late fall/winter of last year. As with most people, we stuffed a ton of boxes into the garage to “deal with later.” I also cleaned out my classroom and stuffed even more boxes into it. The creme de la creme was when we finished our basement this summer and put a lot of the basement boxes into the garage so that we could drywall, paint, etc… So the garage has become a bit of a disaster.

We could still fit two cars into it (I am proud of that) but EVERY other square inch is taken up with stuff and it needs to be dealt with. I COULD spend an entire weekend cleaning and organizing and getting it taken care of, but I don’t want to do that. Instead, I am using tiny steps to get it cleaned up. Here are the first 5 days.

Day 1. Brought 3 Christmas presents (light up boxes) to basement and stored them with the rest of the Christmas decor. Put winter mats in back of jeep.

Day 2. Two college signs for the basement a paper towel holder and two cooler bags. Silverware from our wedding and two plastic containers that are empty

Also I have some energy and some time while something is cooking on the stove so I took about 5 gallons of paint down to the basement where we are going to store it more permanently than in the garage because we do not need it right now.

Day 3 is five more paint cans, a small bin and threw away some essential oils that were 5 to 7 years old and not stored properly.The goal is to every day put something where it supposed to be one or two things and also throw out some thing or discard some thing that doesn’t belong

Day 4. threw a way two teaching things, put two in my bag to take to school, moved around three shelves so that the more I organize I can start putting things where they belong and I moved a rake and a leaf blower. Also got rid of three shirts that had been peed on by my cat and put some cleaner in the hall closet where the rest of the cleaners are (husband noticed at this point)

Day 5. took some golf signs to the basement. Put tie cables into a bin. Put some shoes on new cleaned off shelf. Threw away 2 books. Hung up blower.

Thank you to my 89 followers! My book will be published to Amazon soon! I will link it here also!

September 11, 2022-where was I 21 years ago?

21 years ago I was studying in Paris when the Twin Towers were attacked. Each year, on the anniversary, I see images and news stories that I have never seen before.

A tiny action today is a quick prayer for peace. A quick prayer to help those who suffer. A quick prayer for grief and loneliness.

Not all tiny actions are visible and tangible. However, these prayers are said in hopes that they help others and that my tiny action of prayer can help others today instead of helping myself.

To my 89 followers-THANK YOU! I am in the process of editing my book that will be uploaded to Amazon soon so that you can see hundreds of tips that you can try! I will keep you posted!

September 2, 2022-31 days without social media

Wow! I actually did it. I stayed off Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest for all of August. And I am here to say, it was kind of amazing. There were a few downfalls-I didn’t see the “first day of school” pictures from all my friends and family, I missed the news that my former cleaning lady was killed in a car accident,I started obsessively checking my email, and I “got bored” a few times. Other than that, I DID NOT MISS IT AT ALL!

So this blog is about all the tiny actions that lead you toward your goals. I have written a book that is being edited and will be published (Oct 1 hopefully) about that process. However, if you have been following the blog for a while, I also talk about “bursts” that you can take toward your goals and my social media fast is one of those bursts.

Benefits

I read 13 novels/books.
I increased my step count each week.
I listened to a few inspiration podcasts.
I cleaned out parts of my basement
I started a new teaching job.
I finished writing my book (it has been in the works for 9 months).
I felt like I was choosing my life instead of having it choose me.
I stayed out of so much drama.
I watched a Netflix series with my mom.
I felt calmer and lighter-the summer days seemed to move slower (like they did when I was a kid)

Would I recommend something like this? ABSOLUTELY! I actually did that to a friend of mine. She joined me on the challenge and seemed to miss it a lot more than I did BUT she also didn’t turn off her notifications so she felt compelled to reach out to people if they reached out to her first.

So here is the big question, Am I going back on it? Right now? NO. Will I in the future? Maybe. I do miss looking at pictures and seeing the lives of some of my friends. I don’t miss the advertisements, political rants, and ickiness that sometimes comes with having an active account.

Here is my advice is you want to do a social media fast of your own. 1. Turn off your notifications. 2. Have someone in your life that can notify you of news (like deaths, invites to parties, etc…) 3. Start small-maybe give it up for one day, then one week and gradually work up to a whole month. 4. Have something “better” to fill your time with. I read novels and worked on my own book. These are things that I always want to do and never feel as though I have the time. I gave myself that time by avoiding social media. 5. Forgive yourself-my friend that was doing the challenge with me found herself in the hospital one night and to keep her mind off things, she got on Facebook. THAT IS TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE! Give yourself some grace if something happens. (She hopped right back off Facebook when she got home).

The biggest takeway from this experiment was that I wanted to feel in control of my life and I feel like I achieved that. I was mindlessly scrolling before this and now, I consciously consume the electronic information that goes into my head.

To my 89 followers-thank you so much! I hope you have an amazing weekend! Try “living” this weekend instead of watching others live online-you will be so glad you did!