I’ve written about my organization system before… here’s a complete detailed post about it all. But I noticed that last week, it really kicked into save-me mode and worked exceptionally well.
I don’t know about you, but this has been my craziest and just super busy, out of control September of my life! At least that I remember. I imagine that a lot of it has to do with school and college, trying to get my kid driving and into a car, and such like that, but it just seemed that on many levels my September was just out of control…. it ran and bucked and shied this way and that way like a crazy western Mustang that didn’t want to be broke to the saddle. It overspilled into OCTOBER, for gosh sakes… and it’s only this weekend that I finally had a calm and a feeling of control sweep over me. It was insane.
When I started into September, I was eager about the new school situation for Maggie, perhaps a little leery and cautious, but still excited. And of course, the second year of college for my old kid, that was kinda neat and all that. But then the red tape and bureaucracy started with problems dealing with special needs kids in the system and changing our residency qualifications for college. Nothing seemed to come easy. Too many go heres and go theres and get this paper and that paper and find that thing, it was crazy. And then business got busy. And the Opry slid in there and was demanding time… Oh yeah, and the whole trying to buy a car for Jessy and then a crazy number of fall gigs and such! OH MY GOSH…
Normally I run around oh, 20-25 cards in my to-do pack. And I try to accomplish 3 a day. I’m usually successful. On Sunday evenings I tend to add a handful of cards to the deck, just enough to get them off my brain and on to my list for the coming week.
Well that this point last week, I had 49 cards in the pack!!! Oh my. And I was carrying around a handful in my head that was making me crazy. And I just really hadn’t had ANY downtime for days. Saddle me up with a kinda naggy cold that wasn’t bad enough to get me in bed for the day, but was just enough to make me feel a little miserable and all…. I was facing “shut-down” and that ain’t pretty.
When you work at home, and pretty much alone… “Shut-Down” is the worse thing. Shut-down means you just stop answering the phone and email and you start doing the dumbest things… like laying in bed and reading all day or just aimlessly surfing for dumb things and putzing around your house doing really nothing. And it always seems to be at the worse possible time… when all the world around you is ablaze with responsibilities and little fires that need putting out and to-do cards that keep building.
You begin to let people down. You begin to feel like you’re not cut out for this, and that you’re not doing a good job and you’re a bad parent and just on and on…. negative nasty stuff that just robs you of spirit and saps you of energy.
You even stop blogging, or taking pictures or feeling like you belong to the human race! No Fun.
And oh my gosh, if you happen to have a friend interrupt this little shut-down pity party, you probably scare them, just a little bit. My buddy Dave innocently wandered into my path on Friday and I was a miserable little camper. I’m sorry. I could tell by the tone of his voice on the phone that he was a little taken back by my dull luster and just monotone responses.
I laid down for a while after that. Just kind of laid there. The girls were gone, and the afternoon finally gone from phones ringing and emails coming in. I’ll admit, I think I dozed off for awhile. But then I started to remember some of the teachings of all the positive thinking gurus that I’ve come to embrace. Bob Proctor and some of his other pals… and I began to remember… this shut-down feeling of loss of control, it’s all I my mind. It’s all me, making me feel this way. No one was standing at my bedside poking me with the “feel-bad” stick. No one was telling me I was a failure at business, or that I was the ONLY one in the world that was overwhelmed with changes in life style and schedule.
No, just me. My brain. My emotions. Me.
I had met the enemy and it was ME!
So I got up… I got out my blank cards and I wrote all the stuff in my brain down. Yeah, it was like another 10 cards to my already burdened pack. And I looked through them and sorted out 3 that needed attention NOW.
Got online with my buddy Lynda, whom does very much what I do for a living and told her I needed a kick in the virtual butt and she obligied and I just started on the first card. Focus, finish, get it done, move to the next one. By midnight, I had actually gotten 7 cards done. Had the lineup for the next day ready to go.
And I can say that I’m feeling much better now. ONLY because I changed my thinking and ditched that poor me crap. Yeah, those first couple cards were doozies… took me an hour or more to get one done and it should have been 10 minutes. But it didn’t matter. It was forward momentum and it might have been slow to build steam… I did and got back on track and in the driver seat.
I didn’t get EVERYTHING I hoped for done… but I managed to get back down to a nice comfortable 30 cards. And I think by middle of the week, I’ll be back down where I like to be… 20-25 cards and feeling calm and in control.
Don’t let your mind be your headless chicken crazy ruler when it’s clearly being bad and stuffing you with feelings of doubt and chaos and lack of focus and control. You’re the only one that can say… WHOA…. slow down world, let’s get some perspective here. And a little slow burning fire here and there is good to get a little of the undergrowth burned away to start anew. Be careful that those panicky fires and rabbit holes to blunder down don’t get the best of you. There’s a time for putzing and a time to get focus and get the job done.
Here’s to a nice calm week of productive activity for everyone!!!
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