Hi, folks. This is such a beautiful, coolish morning! The Babe was too cold to sit out this morning. Wow, he’s never cold, always hot. Take that as an omen, the rest of the day is supposed to be cooler as well. We have a noon game for Gavin, so it should be perfect!
Today, I’m going to talk about obstacles. The picture at the top here shows a rhino painting some rather nice pictures. The common thing in each, though, is a view of his horn. It’s humorous until you think about it. Are you (am I?) unable to look over your obstacles to a goal? Sure we are, we’re human, right?
I’m not sure about you, I have these fleeting thoughts about, “I have two tons of laundry to do . . . ” followed by, “I need to Google this word, and oh! Look here . . . ” and finally, the clincher, “Well, it’s 1 p.m., I won’t get anything done today . . . ” Yes, I do all of that and more. Right now, I’m thinking about sorting the laundry, starting a load, and coming back here. And I can be stubborn about spelling a word. WordPress underlines the word in red, and I’ll try every possibility until I have to look it up. Usually it’s a vowel out of place, I’m a great speller (she said humbly), and I consider it a mental challenge to do it right. I may never get over that and I’m not sure I want to.
The final one, early afternoon and I won’t get anything done, it’s kind of a thing I have because of the chronic pain I have. This is one thing I have no control over. Some days it’s all I can do to last from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. doing anything. If I don’t take a break and use heat on my back, it’s a lost cause. My best time for doing anything is in the morning. It’s hard to cram everything into the morning, though.
When the Babe’s at the VFW Post doing bookwork, he usually has the place to himself to finish what he needs to. When he’s not alone, people stop by to visit with him, ask questions, he takes phone calls, etc. It’s part of the job, and he is a real people person. He’s great with people. I love that about him. I’m usually juggling the dogs and whatever I need to finish that day, and trying to write at least the blog. Anything else I can finish is gravy, I figure. When he doesn’t need to go up there daily, it will be easier for me to do more than just the blog. It’s hard to make the time within those morning hours to get a whole day’s worth of work done. We’ll figure out a way, however. Creativity helps.
It’s hard for me to concentrate if I’m near the tv set and something is on. I can sometimes sit there with the heating pad and edit something, or write a list of things to do, or even read some for more direction on how to “Show, Don’t Tell,” gather info from “Personality Isn’t Permanent,” or even jot some notes for who-knows-what. I do lose interest rather quickly, so I try to not work in the living room. I can take the Chrome Book out on the patio or deck, adjust the brightness, and maybe write awhile. Usually, the dogs want to play, and that’s more fun, anyway, right? Sure it is.
Whatever your reason for procrastinating, try and conquer it. If it comes to cleaning up the house, you just can’t let that go too long. Stuff can get out of hand when it comes to papers, boxes, and other things that just take up space. Work just ten or fifteen minutes at clearing any clutter that is around you, distracting you. We’re doing that, and need to a couple times a year. The closet and the office I think are the worst offenders of collecting stuff we don’t need to keep. Just start. Begin, and you’ll be glad you did.
Kathy Raabe 