Today is a holiday in Ireland. That’s an extra day on the weekend.
Yesterday the clocks changed. That was an extra hour in the morning.
Extras can be squandered. Use them wisely.
Waiting for Words
Writing something worthwhile is hard. There must be thinking before the words form on the blank in front of you.
So you wait for the words. You stare at the screen, or the page, and wait for the words.
Except it’s not waiting. It’s trying. You’re trying for words. Sitting trying to say something, to write something, to find the words. That’s not waiting. That’s trying. But it doesn’t work.
It’s the staring that makes it difficult. The sitting. Don’t sit. Do something else instead. Something productive. Wash dishes. Mop the floor. Hang a shelf. Have experiences. See things. Do things. Become inspired.
Then sit. Then write. The blank waits for your words. You just need to find them. Don’t wait.
Don’t Wait
Waiting is demise and rot. Waiting is life not lived. Waiting is the start avoided. Waiting is chances missed. Waiting is time unspooled. Waiting is harvesting regret. Waiting is purpose lost. Waiting is the defiler of dreams.
Waiting is death. Death is waiting.
Go. Do. Start. Now.
Don’t wait.
Gold
Writing these posts often feels like panning for gold. Searching through dirt for the nugget that will keep me going for another day. The idea that will let me write something new today.
That wouldn’t be so bad if there was plenty of gold to be found. And there probably is – if I wasn’t panning for gold wrong. It’s like I keep going back to the same patch of ground over and over. Going in circles. Panning for gold where all the gold has already been found. I keep finding things that look like gold but are really only copies of the gold I’ve already found. Made from some cheaper material.
It’s a solvable problem. I need to stop walking in circles. Move to fresh ground or dig deeper.
Work Start
There’s work to be done. You need to start. But wait a sec.
It can be tempting to sit down and start working on the computer straight away. But sitting in front of that computer screen, thoughtlessly, can be a recipe for disaster.
Better to take a few minutes to see what you should actually be working on. Even looking at a pre-written list is not enough. You may have forgotten something or simply realise that certain items are more important.
The work is important only if it is the right work. Take a few minutes to look at it fresh each morning. Determine what’s important to get done. Then get to work.
Hidden in the Glare
Over the weekend, I spent some time filling cracks and holes in the walls of our bedroom and guest room. The rooms are in need of a fresh coat of paint (which always means about three coats), so job one is making sure the walls are in good shape.
There are plenty to work on. A small hole from the nail a picture hung from. Holes where a shelf was affixed in a corner. Holes from the screws that kept three bookcases from toppling over on top of someone. Some of those were pretty big. Holes from where the plaster had popped off from over a screw head. Most of those were in the ceiling, but not all. Several crack from, I’m guessing, the building settling.
The work was done in daytime. Sun streaming through the windows. I thought I did a good job catching all the holes.
Getting ready for bed, with only the light from my bedside lamp, I spotted several imperfections on a wall. Invisible in full sun the shadows created by the weak light of the lamp made them much easier to see.
This brings up an important lesson – problems can hide in plain sight. Just because there is a good view doesn’t mean everything is visible. It’s best to look at something from a view perspectives to get a better understanding of it.