Barriers to Entry

If you've ever studied business, you know that one of the things to consider when evaluating a business opportunity is the presence of barriers to entry. The term refers to what possible obstacles stand in the way of the business getting off the ground or gaining market share.

• Is the industry heavily regulated? Big barrier to entry.
• Is there a large financial investment necessary up front for equipment, land, people, etc.? Another barrier to entry.
• Are there already several established, dominant players in the market who could squash you like a bug? (Think John Deere, Microsoft, or Coke.) Yep...another barrier to entry.
• Or do you just need a lawnmower, edger, and a few flyers to put in people's mailboxes? Low barrier to entry.

Some of the barriers to entry aren't physical or financial ... they're mental. And they can be the biggest, hardest ones to overcome.  Those voices inside your head can be pretty loud.

And for me, I can be my own barrier to entry. You see, I'm a list maker. I can procrastinate just about anything away and blame it on a to do list of things that "had" to be done first, before I could even start.

A friend of mine (I use the term loosely ... we've met twice), Jon Acuff, is inspiring me to get over waiting for the perfect moment and simply jump at the first moment. This moment. Because this moment will never come again. And the perfect moment may never come at all.

Sunday Confessional: I'm an Adult Underachiever

"Hi. My name is Marybeth. And I'm an adult underachiever."

"Hi, Marybeth." (You know you thought it, even if you didn't say it.)

If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you know me personally. That's because right now, there aren't a lot of people who read my blog who don't share my last name or DNA.

So if you know me ... if you know my life ... you probably have no idea why I see myself as an underachiever.
 
I'm a wife and mother of four boys. (Many people probably think I should stop there. I truly believe there is a special place in heaven for the mother of boys. It is quiet and clean and full of breakable things and scented candles.)

From Finishing to Halftime

When I started my blog, I called it "Finish Well" because I realized that I'm a great starter and a sucky finisher. I had a gillion unfinished projects and books, and I thought that talking about them publicly might shame me into completing a few.

What I didn't even really consider is why I felt compelled to do this. Was it really just a pile of unfinished books and a cross-stitch Christmas stocking that's been eight years in the making? Or was there something more?

Then I realized it. I'm going through my midlife crisis.

I didn't recognize it, because it didn't look anything like what I thought a midlife crisis should look like.

I didn't buy a little red Corvette. (Though I'll take one if anyone's offering).

I didn't have an affair. (I'm sure Herb is glad to hear that one.)

I didn't have a nervous breakdown. (I have a little, tiny one every day, so no need to go overboard.)

My kids weren't all grown and out of the house. (That's about 12 more years away.)

But apparently the phenomenon isn't all that unusual. After all, Time magazine did a cover article about it in 2005.  (Click here to read it.)

My Facebook Fast

I picked a sucky month to abstain from Facebook.

A really, really, REALLY sucky month.

The Olympics are going on, and I can't post about my very favorite Olympics moment of all time: when Keri Strugg's coach Bela Karolyi carried her to the podium after she tore two ligaments in her leg during her gold medal vault. (So instead, I'll post it here. Ha! Victory.) 

And I wasn't able to check in on Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day. (I was at the location at The Avenues in Cumming with Sandy around 8:30 p.m. in case you care.)

It Is Finished: Hours 15-0

OK, so my plan to blog daily about cleaning up my office didn't happen.

But the clean office did!

Here's some before photos, just to remind you from whence I came...

Ugh. That hurts just to look at. And to think I lived this way on and off for years! Yeah, I'd clean it up every now and again, but it was never really down to the roots clean. It was more flat-ironing the top layer while leaving all the kinky curly stuff hidden underneath.

But here's the reveal....

Lost and Found: Hours 18 to 15

OK. The great office clean-up started today. You saw the before pictures yesterday. If you missed them, click here to see my gosh-awful mess.

But wait! I still have before and after picture for you, so hold onto your knickers.

Just in case you have your own little shop of horrors in your house, each day I'm going to go over what I did, step by step. Today's tasks, in order:

1. Take all baskets, boxes, and other containers of "stuff" out of my room and into the dining room.
2. Remove all random piles of paper from the floor and move them into the dining room. Return things to their homes on the bookshelves if they have migrated to the floor. 
3. Remove everything else from the floor that isn't nailed down or a major piece of furniture. Put it in the dining room.
4. Clear off all horizontal surfaces and put the papers, etc., in plastic bins to sort through later. Put bins in the dining room. (Yes, I know this is how I've gotten off-track in the past. But this time I'm actually going to sort through the bins, laundry baskets, and other boxes. None of them may re-enter the office.)
5. Thoroughly clean the desk area. Vacuum, then mop the floor. (Note: Even though Izabel comes and cleans our house once every two weeks, it's been literally months since my office has been cleaned. I banned her from the room ages ago because there was nothing ... literally nothing ... she could do.)
6. Choose a new rug for my newly cleaned floor from the lovely ones donated to the cause by my friends. Thank you Gina and Jackie!
7. Sit back and bask in the glow.

Do you notice a theme here? Everything moved out of my office and into the dining room. So here are my before and after pictures for the day.

T Minus 18 Hours

18 hours.

Three hours a day for six days.

That's how much time I have set aside over the next week to clean my office. Seems like a lot, doesn't it? Well, if it does, then you haven't seen my office.

Lest you think I'm exaggerating, here are some "before" photos...

This is what you see when you first enter my office. That pink thing all covered with stuff is a large chair. I bought this chair when my 14yo Sandy was a toddler, and it used to reside in my bedroom back when I was a single mom and it was just the two of us. It's where I would sit and do my quiet times in the evening after he went to bed. It is where we'd snuggle and read. It's the chair we would sit and watch VeggieTales when he woke during the night with a fever of 103, waiting for the Motrin to kick in.