Am I the only self-employed creative type who feels the day is like a charging team of horses that, while it may begin the day tightly harnessed and pointed down a productive path, somewhere along the path breaks apart, chargers coursing in ten directions?
I've asked myself about possible antidotes. One suggestion that I made to myself was to make a daily schedule and STICK TO IT. Then the thought of doing the same things the same way every single day settled over me like a woolen blanket in the heat of a Tennessee July. Suffocating. It also, if you know me, seemed like a fantastical Disney movie. Ain't gonna happen.
The next idea to amble along was the prospect of daily and weekly goals. How I get there is up to me! This, this I like. I am still making the steady progress my heart desires, but I get to choose what the day will look like, how it will morph and flow into something awesome. This I can do. Enter my over-achieving, over-ambitious, perfectionist-leaning tendencies. I have never made a set of goals that was not impossible. I am interested in everything. If I look at all of these interests on paper, no one human being could achieve them in one lifetime. So I don't look. I just stab here and stab there, never leaving any of them fully behind. Eventually, however, I begin to feel horrible about the fact that excellence has left the building.
What is one creative, slightly loopy, nearly always enthused writer to do? What she doesn't want to do. Set priorities. Leave some interests behind (for now). Be content with some mediocrity (in acceptable areas). After all, I'm still captain of my ship. I can still take a "mental health day" and go to the mountains. (Even if I have to take my laptop with me.) It's all good!
I suppose life is meant to be lived around the beautiful individuality of our personalities. They're God-given, so they are GOOD! That doesn't mean we aren't to work hard, stand behind our word and be (heaven forbid) responsible. It means that my work style and yours, though they may be at odds, are not standing next to each other as "right" and "wrong." (Okay, it's wrong for me to leave dirty dishes out overnight in the heart of ant season.)
Right-angle folks need to keep this top of mind when dealing with me. I need to keep this top of mind when planning a fun activity with them that includes a tight agenda, optimizing parking, hitting the right restaurant for calorie counts and the like. Oh heck, who am I kidding, I'm not going to a conference with one of THOSE people. Lunch, maybe.
Let's remember that we are all beautiful in our diversity, especially when we are shepherding kids on the brink of adulthood. Let's love them on to their potential. Not OUR potential. That ship has already left the dock.
I've asked myself about possible antidotes. One suggestion that I made to myself was to make a daily schedule and STICK TO IT. Then the thought of doing the same things the same way every single day settled over me like a woolen blanket in the heat of a Tennessee July. Suffocating. It also, if you know me, seemed like a fantastical Disney movie. Ain't gonna happen.
The next idea to amble along was the prospect of daily and weekly goals. How I get there is up to me! This, this I like. I am still making the steady progress my heart desires, but I get to choose what the day will look like, how it will morph and flow into something awesome. This I can do. Enter my over-achieving, over-ambitious, perfectionist-leaning tendencies. I have never made a set of goals that was not impossible. I am interested in everything. If I look at all of these interests on paper, no one human being could achieve them in one lifetime. So I don't look. I just stab here and stab there, never leaving any of them fully behind. Eventually, however, I begin to feel horrible about the fact that excellence has left the building.
What is one creative, slightly loopy, nearly always enthused writer to do? What she doesn't want to do. Set priorities. Leave some interests behind (for now). Be content with some mediocrity (in acceptable areas). After all, I'm still captain of my ship. I can still take a "mental health day" and go to the mountains. (Even if I have to take my laptop with me.) It's all good!
I suppose life is meant to be lived around the beautiful individuality of our personalities. They're God-given, so they are GOOD! That doesn't mean we aren't to work hard, stand behind our word and be (heaven forbid) responsible. It means that my work style and yours, though they may be at odds, are not standing next to each other as "right" and "wrong." (Okay, it's wrong for me to leave dirty dishes out overnight in the heart of ant season.)
Right-angle folks need to keep this top of mind when dealing with me. I need to keep this top of mind when planning a fun activity with them that includes a tight agenda, optimizing parking, hitting the right restaurant for calorie counts and the like. Oh heck, who am I kidding, I'm not going to a conference with one of THOSE people. Lunch, maybe.
Let's remember that we are all beautiful in our diversity, especially when we are shepherding kids on the brink of adulthood. Let's love them on to their potential. Not OUR potential. That ship has already left the dock.
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