Thursday, April 10, 2014

Dishes and Brain Tricks

I have procrastinated my way to where I am today. If life is about maintenance one might argue that my life is less than half-lived. On the other hand, if life is actually about binge watching television shows on the internet, my life is full beyond measure. It's all a matter of perspective, a trick of the brain. I have been tiptoeing by a very large pile of dirty dishes for some time now. When this happens I generally approach the task through one of two routes: I take a weekend day and tackle them while blasting NPR or I set a timer for 10 minutes on random mornings and wash as many as I can in that time. Usually I will end up taking more than the 10 minutes and get them all washed. At other times, I do 10 minutes worth and then just wander off and dirty more dishes. Last night I pulled a different trick on my brain. As I walked by them feeling all the shame and guilt I said to myself, "Yanno, doing those dishes will make me feel better. It will rid me of these feelings of guilt and shame." It was not a statement that is in my usual repertoire of motivational and demotivational pep talks. In the context this novelty was enough to get me to do the dishes. And I did feel better. We shall see if this becomes a new tool in my motivational toolbox or was merely a fluke.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

When life puts you at a loss

Internet, some days I am not sure that I am up to the tasks presented to me.  The big ones that matter that have to do with the souls around me that I do or do not know.  The ones that require both the path of the heart and the path of work.

What I want to do is cower in the corner with my helplessness in the face of what cannot be controlled or changed.

I have done this in the past to my great shame.  I want that to be my past not my present or my future.

Regardless of the good or harm that I do moving forward, I want to take up arms against that sea of troubles.  In a lot of situations, it's hard to say what your supposed to do, and there are probably situations all around me right now that I am not even aware of must less able to take up arms again.

If the world were like Hogwarts there would be a Room of Requirement.
It is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needsDobby explaining to Harry Potter the abilities of the Room of Requirement[src]
Moving forward sometimes I trip up and sometimes I miss the mark but at the very least, moving forward I am trying to not "At least ..." people.



But a Room of Requirement would be so much better ....