Hey Good Lookin’,

Let’s have a chat about work.  Not just any work, but personal work.  Work is hard.  I don’t need to tell you that, I’m sure you already know.  There’s something harder about the work you do for yourself.  Sometimes you take long extended breaks, because you don’t depend on that work.  You already have a job that pays the bills, so it’s not urgent or necessary to accomplish the personal work right away.

We get into the habit of being “safe.” Safe is my way of describing my inner self’s lazy habits. “You don’t really have to audition tonight, you got work tomorrow.” “Don’t worry if you don’t get that sent over right away, you got work tomorrow anyway.” The inner voice says. We feel tired anyway. Worn down from a long day at work and we want to relax, not work more. If we have kids the problem compounds on itself.

I am not going to give you any motivational speeches or how-to’s on getting over these humps or slumps of not working on yourself. I haven’t figured it all out myself. But what I do know, is that we are always a work in progress. Okay, so this week didn’t work out that well. Try again next week. Try again tomorrow. Yes, there is a problem with that too as you could just put it off again for the next day. But we also can’t be too hard on ourselves.  We like being safe. We like feeling safe. If we weren’t safe we would be doing something to get us to that feeling. And yes, I also understand that our laziness can get in the way. But sometimes, it’s too much.

It’s too much to ask of yourself. It’s too much to put yourself out there when you don’t know the outcome. It’s safer with what you already have. And that’s okay too. It’s okay if you think you aren’t good enough, because you are good enough.  Maybe tomorrow you will be able to see that you can do that thing you didn’t do today, or have been putting off for a long time. Maybe you will have the time to finally finish it, or start it, or just work on it some more.

It took me almost a year to finish a shawl I was working on. You can probably see it in one of my previous posts. I just recently finished it, and I haven’t yet gotten around to taking pictures of it. I see it everyday and just think “I’ll do it later… I’ll do it when I get home… I’ll do it tomorrow… I’ll do it this weekend…” It’s been like that for almost 3 weeks now. I know I will get to it eventually, the problem is that I don’t live alone. I have a husband, and my putting things off also affects him. I do feel sorry, and I am working on being better at it.  I am most thankful for how understanding he is, and also that he manages to push me to do the things I want to do.  Somehow, I will return the favor.  But for now I just want you to know that no matter what you are putting off, it’s okay. You will get to it, and you’ll feel great you finally do.

Don’t be hard on yourself and let yourself learn from the feelings you are having. One day you will be a better person for it, and that day might even be tomorrow.

See you on the flip side!

Quirkily yours,
The Quirky Digest