Slow it Down

 I have a personality that it is all or nothing.  I am full steam ahead or I am floundering in the rear and flailing around.  I can see the effects of this quite clearly in my life quite a bit.  I have come to the realization that this has happened in the last week or two.  So now I have to back track and correct my course.  At least I figured it out, right?

This seems to be part of my intrinsic nature.  I find a project and I dive right on in.  I'm so excited and ready to slay the project.  I'm going to be Mary-Conqueror-Fran!  It is going to be fabulous!    Seriousl, how many times have I come up with some new project that I am full fledged invested in and after a week or two never mention it again. Sometimes I am even embarrassed to start a new project or idea on here because there is so many.    I don't even want to look....but there are a LOT.    Lets see, there is 2024 miles in 2024.  There was the tracker journal that I was creating each month.  Ohheck, I am stopping there because it depresses me!   But that goes hand in hand with a recent post that I made about finishing projects.  I wrote about how it was time to stop spreading myself thin.  How it was time to clean up all this clutter and finally finish some projects. (You can read about that here.)  I even started this clean up mission!  I made myself a list for last weekend of things that I wanted to do in order to get closer to finishing some of these projects!  I trucked through the project like there was no tomorrow!  I was so proud of myself!  (Seriously, I was proud.  You can sense it in every word of this post.)  Riding high on my weekend success I made a list for the upcoming week and I was doing AMAZING with it!  

And somehow about the middle of the week I started to really think about something.  I started to realize that I was focused on the wrong thing.  I was focused on finishing projects.  I was focused on completing tasks.  I was not focusing on doing them in the highest quality possible.  I was rushing through things like a mad woman in order to be able to cross one thing off my list and in the process was sacrificing the quality of the project.   Case in point.   I had put together a lot of recipes from mom into small recipe book.  I had gone over it and deemed it 'done' and went through the process of putting it on Amazon, with a publish date for later this year.  I ordered a proof.  When I got the proof I was disappointed with some things about it.  Things that were totally in my control!  No worries.  I sat down and figured to fix them quickly, upload and move on.  But it didn't go smoothly.  I was getting frustrated.  The frustrated side of me said "just scrap the project".   But the other side said, 'but no, I want to finish projects, not scrap them'  (I know if I walk away from the project that I will most likely see it in another 6 months or one year and pick it back up as an 'unfinished project.)     And that is when I had my epiphany.   Slow it down.  It's great to have a to do list.  And sure, it's great to cross things off multiple items as completed.  But it's even more fantastic to cross of ONE thing that is done to the absolute best of your ability!  Something that you can be proud of!  

So I am regrouping.  What I did on the recipe book was not in vain.  However,  instead of crossing it off and saying that the project was completed, I need to say that it was just one STEP that was crossed off.  That one step brings me closer to the project being complete.  

So the first thing is to SLOW DOWN.   The second thing is to focus on ONE THING at once.  On the day that I was trying to make those corrections on the recipe book I was also working on a a different project.  I was dividing my attention between the two projects and both of the projects were suffering.  So one thing at a time.  

So for my current to do list for the next few days, I only have ONE writing project on there and only ONE sewing project on there.  There will be more than enough to keep me busy on those.  But I need to let my mind focus on the task at hand.   

Regrouping, refocusing and still 100% committed to completing these projects and streamlining my life!  

Top of the list!

II keep telling myself that I've got to do this. I've got to get myself on track and finish what I started.  I am still working on finishing projects around my house.  I started this 'finish up unfinished projects back at the end of 2012.  I have done quite well and have finished quite a few projects.

  I've finished quilts. 

 I've finished cross stitch projects. 

 I've been doing well.   But I have started to falter on the MF project.  You see, I'm an unfinished project.  My weight loss is NOT finished. I need to finish this just as much as I need to finish all these craft projects (and yes, I have a few brand new projects lined up for as soon as I deem myself caught up...but I WILL NOT put a stitch, or lift a pair of scissors or buy anything new until I'm caught up!)

So I have been thinking deeply about finishing my projects....namely the project of myself.   I've vowed to do it.  Finish and then strut my stuff to be a hot chickie pie!

Today I ws sitting at work and a message came through on facebook from my zumba instructor. He message read something like this.  "Hello.  I know that you've lost quite a bit of weight and you have utilized zumba as a means to help you in this quest.  I have been contacted by the Herald Mail (our local newspaper) to try to find someone to write an article about for the lifestyle section of the paper."   I was at work and somewhat bored, so without thinking I responded to Anita and shortly thereafter was corresponding via email with the reporter that was writing the article.  Before I knew it, my 'interview' was completed via email.   I then received the news that a photographer would be contacting me to have my picture taken for the article.  Uhhhhhh  this is really real.  

I don't mind sharing my story.  I will say it like it is.  I was fat.  I was thin.  I regained my weight and now I'm struggling to be 'thin again'.  I don't mind sharing.  What gets me is that the whole world (or at least everyone that reads the local paper) will know where I'm at.  They will know that I'm still trying and that means that I'll be in the spotlight.  Uhhhhhhhhhh  that means I can't sit on my arse anymore this 'weight loss project' has now sky rocketed to the top of the list of my priorities!  BIG TIME move to the top of the list!   Failing in privacy (or at least the relative privacy of my blog and close friends) is one thing.....failing with the world watching is unthinkable!!!!