Saturday, August 20, 2005

Unsticking the stuckness

I think this is going to be something I'll have to do from time to time as a sort of life maintenence. This is a new thing for me. I'll be energized, motivated and inspired for a while then it starts to wane and I start feeling like I'm spinning my wheels. Then I'll start to worry about my ability to achieve my goals. Doubts start creeping in big time.

And then I'll roll up my mental sleeves and get to work. Tonight was another one of those great brain blasts that I've been having in the last 2 years that keep me moving forward. I took inventory of my situation and the stuckness started to unravel. Here's my list.

Get the downstairs cleaned up.-- I need help moving the furniture out of the workshop area and into the bedroom. The chemicals in the kitchen need to be moved into the closet. Our boxes need to go into the container. Do something about the moisture damage on the bathroom wall. Repair the work table and paint the legs. Get 12 good church chairs out of the cupboard and clean them. Paint them if there's time. Clean up driveway and move that stuff out. Clean up parking area and pull the weeds. General cleaning inside.

Finish Jeff's uke case.-- Get paperboard for the lid and bottom of the case. Cover them with batting and velvet. Cover the top and bottom with the outer fabric. Cover the poster board strips for the sides of the case and lid. Jim wire up the light unit. Get buttons for the closure and figure out the strap. Get cord for the "seat belt".

Build first project, The Prop Head-- Come up with a better name than "prop head". Record the steps, cost and how long it takes to do the project.

Go see Cee Ann at Tiggywinkles-- I met Cee Ann last Halloween. Her son lives across the street from Kevin's, which is where we do our Halloween decorating. She really liked the display and she was very interested in one of the prop heads. We chatted a little and I gave her some of my paper. We talked a little about me making a prop head for her that she can use as a display in her store but it didn't get much further than that. I'd like to do a mannequin with interchangeable heads that she can use all year round. That's kind of an involved project for a later date. Anyway...

I want to go talk to her about making a head for her shop. I want to see if she'll let me leave some flyers for the workshop on her counter in exchange for the head. She's always been so helpful, maybe she'll go for it. I also want to talk to her about finding a cheap mannequin somewhere that we can turn into a year round display piece. Her resources might be better than mine.

Other areas of stuckness--
Getting serious about my diet. I'm exercising again and I'm happy about that but I really need to do the whole thing if I'm going to make any progress. I lost some weight and it felt great. I know I've gained some back and I want to get it off again as soon as possible so I can feel good again.

How am I going to achieve my goals AND be Dad's primary caregiver? That day is coming and I have to figure out how to make it work. When Jim and I have to spend too much time dealing with Dad it knocks us off track. There has to be a way to include the Dad stuff and still be able to take care of business. Today Dad came over 3 times. I know that as time goes on he'll be coming over more often.

Ok, that's enough for now. I feel this is something I can work with in the next few weeks.

Gotta keep moving forward.

12 comments:

vivage said...

Ouch, your post hit a nerve. I have a list, it keeps on growing and I haven't seen to checking things off of it as quickly or efficently as I would have done years ago.

It occurs to me that I've become a procrastinator. Ye Gawds!

Donita Curioso said...

Oh I'm the champion procrastinator. I was taught by the best (my dad). I think making lists is the thing that saves me. I keep a notebook on the front porch, which is where I do my unwinding at the end of the day. It's really helping me work out the details of the workshops.

It's this stuckness process that's new for me. I have to keep recreating my get-up-and-go. I think it's because I never really had goals before. Now, having goals is a way of life. I'm learning that inertia is part of the process. You have to give it a shove from time to time and not get discouraged when things get stuck. Stuckness isn't failure. That's a new one for me.

vivage said...

Depending upon the area of my life I've always had goals...not always big ones but goals nevertheless. I suppose it's the last 2 yrs where striving hasn't been my focus. Procrastination has been.

Or maybe it's just the relaxation of being a goal driven person?

Donita Curioso said...

Sure... keep telling yourself that...

Heh, heh!

I think the whole concept of having goals was just foreign to me. I probably had them but I didn't think of it in that way. I just held it wrong. If you have goals and then don't achieve them, you've failed. So if you don't have goals you can't fail, right? It's kind of like that.

I think I've got it figured out now.

vivage said...

I had a goal of making it far in my career, making a lot of money and having political clout within the company.

I achieved that goal...and much to my dismay found it to be pretty rotten. So I let go of that goal and found the polar opposite. No career goal at all (other than chilling with yoga).

So, no even with my perfectionist ways I don't think of my career goals to have been failures.

My last career goal was to just chill, to stop running like a hamster on a wheel...have done that pretty successfully too. But I guess I'm bored with it, or rather bored with not having any money. LOL.

Donita Curioso said...

I could have used a dose of hamsterness in my life. I've always been too lazy and laid back. I think that comes from a fear of failure. Anyway, I always seem like I'm 10 years behind everyone else.

vivage said...

Hamsterness is nothing to wish for, who cares if we're 10 yrs behind the rest? Not me.

Brother Atom Bomb of Reflection said...

Keep in mind, another side effect of hamsterness is multiple multiple births.

Donita Curioso said...

Not with these ovaries.

Jim said...

The Champion Manifold Ovarians of Stuckness!

Not that this will mean much to Doni's dear readers, but here's my little list.

My little list:
- reunion paperwork & payment
- finish appraisal school
- contact appraisers
- exercise
- diet
- uke case lights
- finish sprinklers
- Roundup front area
- somehow get storage unit in place
- help with seminar preparations (cleaning, organizing)
- fix Ken's guitar
- fix my minidisc recorder
- fix music adapter for car
- fix power strips (from relay incident)
- clean workshop area thoroughly

vivage said...

*Champion Manifold* would make a very good name for a band.

Sorry for digressing.

Donita Curioso said...

Heh, heh!