Day 18 – Quit Being So Hard On Yourself
Okay, first off, you may have noticed I’m NOT posting every
day. That’s just not feasible for me and
rather than bury myself in an “all-or-nothing” game, I’ve decided… YES, I’m
still organizing my life… and NO, I can’t do it full time… and YES, I still
want you to be a part of it. So there it
is… I’ll do it as I can, just like I do everything else in my life.
Which has been (my life, I’m talking about) a bit chaotic
lately. And the mess and chaos and STUFF
is stressful and depressing. So I plow
on, taking time here and there to organize even though other parts of me are
screaming, “You need to make jewelry for your upcoming show!” “You need to list jewelry on your website… it
currently looks like bat barf!” “You
need to list some workshops because you have students who are waiting for
projects!” “You need to make a video
tutorial because you have people waiting for that!” You need, you need, YOU
NEED!!!
Chronic over-thinker.
Critical + over-thinking = much unhappiness.
Yes, I am very hard on myself. Something I need to work on. So here’s an interesting conundrum…
What if *I* am the negative person? How do I not “hang out” with myself? Obviously, this is not an option. So… I truly, truly have to work on being less
critical of myself. How shall I
start? Okay, I always tell others, here’s
the order of things:
- Know what you want to change
- Start noticing when you “blow it”. Obviously at first you’re going to notice
AFTER you blow it… that’s fine. That’s
what this step is. No need to beat
yourself up… just say, “Ah, there was an opportunity to change that
habit/thing/behavior. I recognize it and
eventually I will catch myself BEFORE I act.”
- You will eventually catch yourself before you do
the behavior… or even in the middle of it.
You may not CHANGE the behavior or you may not do a great job of it, but
catching yourself before the deed is done is important. Super important.
- As you start catching yourself in the moment of
and/or before a potential bad habit, you will begin to have a chance to change
your behavior. Now is when your training
comes in. Training? What training? Well, have you been reading articles or going
to therapy? There are lots of techniques
out there. Do some research. I can share some of my ideas with you (at a
later date).
- Eventually, you will catch yourself more and
more often. You will “fake it ‘til you
make it”. And someday you will find that
it has not only become a habit, but that your new reactions are sincere and
genuine and you are a changing (or changed) person.
Anyway, I did something amazing today (truth: totally not
amazing). When the mail came, I
immediately took it over to the kitchen table, opened each envelope and
package, threw most of it in the garbage, and put the rest where it belonged
(supplies in the studio, coupons in the coupon file, etc).
Why was this amazing?
Because I normally do any of the following:
·
Leave it all in a pile to look at later
·
Open important looking things and leave the
packaging AND the contents in a pile
·
Throw the garbage away and toss the important
stuff in an “important stuff” pile to sort later
Of course, the only reason I could do this is because the
kitchen table was clean. Ha ha ha! But really, these stupid little things (daily
mail) add up… fast. I have a laundry basket
of “crap” that I’ve pulled from my car.
I would bet 90% of the contents of that laundry basket is
trash. But I didn’t feel like “sorting
it” or “dealing with it” right away so I put it aside for later. Ugh!
As a matter of fact, let’s do this. Let’s see just how much of that laundry
basket full of car contents is trash that has been taking up valuable real
estate in my house for the past month.
So left to right and then clockwise I’ve got:
- A pile of trash
- Things that need to go somewhere specific (back
into the car, into my studio, returned to a friend, etc)
- Paper and plastic bags for re-using
- Newspaper recycling
- Cardboard recycling
- Papers to file
- Papers to deal with this week
Done and done.
Today I also decided I needed to get rid of “high-maintenance”
items in my house. One of which is
little water fountains. I love them… the
humidity they add to the air and the sound they make and how they look… but
they are too much work. I have to clean
them often and constantly fill them with water… oh, and I have to be very
careful where I put them (spills).
So they go. Sigh…
In their place, I am purchasing these less aesthetically
pleasing, but more practical
humidifier/diffusers.
I bought that one on Amazon Prime Day. Next one I’ll have to pay regular price. I do like the mist that comes out, the
auto-shutoff, the optional cycling lights, and the essential oils diffuser part
of it. We’ll see how long it lasts with
our well water. I can’t be bothered to
use distilled water. Hm… maybe I
should. Maybe I should keep a gallon of
distilled water under the kitchen sink and… well, let’s see how it goes with
well water. If it ends up being a
problem, then I can switch to distilled water.
Oh and there was one more little moment in the studio
(remember, those little things add up!).
I needed some E6000.
I use E6000 about
five times a year, if that.
Remember the
earbud
holder I made?
That’s what I need it
for.
So here’s the E6000 I have in my regular glue place.
This is SO not working for me. I use only a teeny tiny bit each year and the
stuff just hardens up and is really hard to get out of the tube, etc. It also takes up more space than I need for
such a seldom-used product.
So I bought some of
these
(they come 4 to a pack).
More expensive, absolutely.
Er…. Maybe. I mean, if the larger tube ends up being unusable, then no,
it’s not more expensive to pay more for the little ones that actually last
longer for me and my usage than one large tube.
I tossed the large tube in the garbage and put one of the
tiny new tubes in my “glue place”. The
remaining three unopened little tubes will store well in my “studio supplies”
box that stays in storage until I run out of a staple.
See, that’s how it works.
I keep a certain amount of “things” in my studio (glue, tape, latex
gloves, etc) and I keep more of those things in a box (or five) in my storage
shed. When I run low of something in the
studio, I know I have more in the storage shed.
And when I take the penultimate of any item from the storage shed, I
order more immediately. I will show
images of the storage shed when we get to that area. I do a once a year purging/cleaning every
summer so it’s coming up pretty soon.
Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback. It’s great hearing from you all and finding
out that I’m not alone in this journey.
:-) Share your tips, tricks,
ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.
