All sorts of potential here. It doesn't look like much but it's the main fixin's for setting up to make beads. Santa was VERY good to me this year!
Which brings me to this musing: last night I knew I needed to start cleaning (yet again) my studio space so that there is a place for this. There is a place for it but it's currently covered with stuff. Which needs to be put away. So what did I do? dusted the fan/light in the living room (cathedral ceiling, tiptoes on top a stool reaching with a feather duster. You don't want to know) and did Son's taxes to help him play catch up for lo about 5 years. In our house, we call this productive procrastination. Doing things lower on the todo list.
Can anyone tell me if this is human nature or just me? I want very much to play with beads (I did have to order some glass rods and we do have to go get oxygen and propane, but those are small compare to cleaning the studio.) I have done nothing but talk about it for over a month. So WHY am I dusting the living room fan/light which I have successfully ignored for easily a year? Son's taxes? Well, that needed to get done. And doing that reminds me I must gather all our tax stuff (good for me, I started working on that earlier in the year and have the really hard part – working out the cottage tax info – already done. The rest is ordering and recording, by hand since learning how to use quicken would just add time, about 7 months of art receipts). See – there are all these competing things with doing what I want, or at least say I want, to do. Why is that?
Christine Kane says pick a word for the year (I know, abrupt switch of topic, but I went as far as I could with the procrastination thing as I have no answers. Tho there is a theory that if you ask you really can answer). Last year I picked two (I never listen to rules): prosperity and abundance which are close but not exactly the same. This year I am going to pick "gratitude." And that begins the list of things I'd like to focus on this year: gratitude, journaling (which I have avoided even more than cleaning the studio even though I know it is enlightening and brings all kinds of good things with it), exercising (which I have done sporadically this year. Told my nurse practitioner, who is new to me this year my doctor having left her practice, I was going three days a week…very proud. She said: yes but you should do 5 or 6. So what did I do? I quit entirely knowing 5 or 6 simply aren't going to happen).
Which actually does bring me back around to the original topic: what is it (my nature? universal human nature?) that makes us not follow through on things we say we want? What is it about the habits we've formed that make them so hard to break?
It all leaves me frustrated with myself. On my list this year is: don't get frustrated with yourself. It serves no purpose. Accept what is and onward. I can be frustrated for several more days and then I must get over it. I'm looking for good ideas. Please leave yours!
thought for the day: Your decision to evolve consciously through responsible choice contributes not only to your own evolution, but also to the evolution of all of those aspects of humanity in which you participate. It is not just you that is evolving through your decisions, but the entirely of humanity…Within our species there are degrees of soul consciousness. The significance of the evolution of responsibility is that each human being moves through levels of responsibility on its way to wholeness. In other words, as a soul chooses the lesson of responsibility, it will find itself incarnating into an atmostphere of more potential impact upon the species. The personality must also come to agree with what the soul has chosen. If you are not consciously ready, you will not be put into a position to impact many for the protection of your own soul…As souls choose to participate consciously in more inclusive levels of interaction, they take on not only their own transformation, but also those of the larger collectives in which they participate. Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul.
6 Comments
Belated Merry Christmas Tammy!
I am happy that you got your glass beading items. I knew you were keen on starting to do that.
As for the studio cleaning….do you have floor space that is not being used? Hmmm….possible answer. I just finished putting away 3 boxes of assorted craft stuff that has been waiting for the last year to be stored away in my craft cupboard. No, I can't take credit for being productive. A flood in the basement does wonders for getting jobs done that you don't want to do. LOL
Anyway, don't worry about it. I agree with Carol. Set the timer for 15 minutes each day and start at the front of the room. Do not, I repeat, do not work past the timer. When it goes off stop and walk out of the room. It may take a week or so but you will get it done eventually without hating the room in the end.
Have a great New Years. Stay safe and be happy!
P.S. Cleaning the fan had to be done anyway so it really wasn't a waste of time or energy was it?
I would have commented earlier but I had to…..just kidding. I am the Queen of procrastination and have no idea why because I feel soooooo much better when I do what I was avoiding-hey maybe that's why. But I have learned a little technique of setting a timer for 15 minutes and starting and allowing myself to stop when the timer goes off figuring I can do anything for 15 minutes. Many times the task is completed before the timer-we always think dreaded things will take longer than they do-many times I want to continue-it was just getting started that I needed. Creativity is scary-we don't know what's going to happen. Cleaning-not so scary-something will get clean. Go with the creativity-it's something only you can do.
My studio was a mess when I started the Soul Coaching book in November but, because the book tasks involved a lot of clutter clearing and reorganising, I finally made a start on sorting my studio. . That's all it took, making a start and the rest of the cleaning and organising just flowed on from there. I had put it off because it felt like such an overwhelming chore but, afterwards, I felt amazingly uplifted. I'm sure you will find the same when you just take that first, and hardest, step….in making a start. You will know when the time is right.
Well chosen word for 2009!
love, light and peace,
serena
Tammy,
Here are my thoughts on what I have learned about procrastination, since you asked.
As I read your post I felt like I was talking to myself! Evidently not cleaning your studio is serving some need you have, you are getting some type of reward from it (subconsciously) so I suppose you have to chew on that for a while. But if you need to obsess about not cleaning, set aside an hour a day to do just that. Then when you catch yourself doing this in your offtime you can remind yourself that you have to wait til tomorrow to do it. Create an intentional space a compartment inside your mind and put your angst of cleaning in that compartment. Know that you will always have it and make a space for the uncomfortableness. It's sort've like turning it over to a higher power, relinquish it, let it go, accept it, and you will find some answers. You may even get around to cleaning a little at a time.
I have a couple of friends that have a place for everything in their house and nothing is ever out of order. I wish I could be this way because it's easier to clean when nothing is out of place. I have accepted that I am not this way, it gets to me, but then I just tell myself "clean it or just start working, but DO SOMETHING!" I was having a real (mental) issue before the holidays started because I knew I wouldn't be working for a while on art and I can't afford to take a moment off. My studio is messy so I decided to work in my kitchen for a while and that worked out well. Just took the necessities up and it worked out well. The painting isn't finished because sometimes I just work slow whether I'm in a neat space or a clean space. Thank you. Happy New Year
No, no, no — I think you are procrastinating about cleaning the studio space for the glass making apparatus and supplies because it is such a big job. You will have to find a place to put all the stuff that is on that surface. And, if you are like me at all, it doesn't matter how wonderfully cool the thing is that you are planning to put in a spot that needs cleaning, cleaning spaces is just not a thing that goes very high on the priority list. On my list of "things to do" cleaning and dusting are always at the bottom. Always. No matter what the other thing is, it will go above cleaning. This probably accounts for the fact that the last time I cleaned and straightened up the cabinet under my bathroom sink was when I removed everything to paint it when I redecorated the bathroom 5 years ago. Even when Jim was screwing around with the clogged drain pipe three weeks ago, it did not get cleaned and organized. Things got shoved out of the way for the job, and stayed where shoved following it.
Okay. That's it. I'm cleaning the bathroom vanity cabinet today.
And a happy Solstice to you as well!
You got the stuff for making beads-how cool!!!!!! I was just squealing when I read that, knowing how much you wanted to try this. Why are you procrastinating with it? Dunno-I do the same thing:) Sometimes I wonder if we're so afraid to tackle the unknown, or is it that we're afraid we won't be happy with or be able to produce beautiful things with, whatever it is that we've coveted, didn't think we'd ever own, and now do! Whatever the reason, you'll be fine!! More than fine & I can't wait to see what you make now!