Pushing Through

The only thing a person can ever really do is keep moving forward. Take that big leap forward without hesitation, without once looking back. Simply forget the past and forge toward the future.
— Alyson Noel

Never give up. There are always tough times, regardless of what you do in anything in life. Be able to push through those times and maintain your ultimate goal.
— Nathan Chen

Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energy moving forward together towards an answer.
— Denis Waitley

Pushing through. Yup, sometimes that’s all you can do to make it through the day, or the week.

Last weekend my mood and ambition both tanked at the same time. It was a very unproductive weekend, and left me feeling discouraged. Monday I was feeling no more inspired, but I pushed through and carried on.

But one thing I didn’t do is beat myself up about it. Let’s face it, some days your motivation only stretches as far as the couch. And sometimes it’s okay to kick back once in a while. But the danger is when that spot of relaxing becomes way too comfortable. The idea of getting up and doing something productive has as much appeal as a root canal.

The thing is, no matter how much you’re enjoying binging that series on Netflix while relaxing in a near-slumberous state on the sofa, eventually you need to get up, dust yourself off, and get moving, preferably forward.

It’s not always as easy as it sounds, moving forward that is. But do you really want to stay in that unproductive rut forever? Of course you don’t. The longer you’re in there, the harder it is to get out of.

So Monday I pretty much forced myself to start moving out of that rut, and the more I did, the easier it became. By Tuesday all that was left of the rut was regret for the things I didn’t get done.

Stumbling blocks can come in many forms. It could be mental (like mine), a physical obstacle, a professional setback, a personal road block, or simply burnout. While it’s essential to replenish your physical and emotional energy, you can’t overdo it or you’ll end up back in that non-productive rut.

So what helps to push through, out of that rut?

Find your purpose again. What is it you were trying to accomplish in the first place? And while you’re at it, take stock of what you’ve accomplished already. Refuse to give up, both on the task at hand and yourself. Believe in yourself. It also helps if you’re able to keep a positive mindset.

With me it was the knowledge that if I didn’t do it, no one else would. No one else is going to write my blog posts or emails, or start planning meals. Sure, I could sit around doing nothing and feeling crappy, but what was that going to accomplish? Plus, did I really want to keep feeling like this? Coasting through life instead of getting things done. Of course not.

Successful people have learned how to keep going, even when things aren’t going well. They know that if you give up when things get hard, you’ll never find the success you’re after, whether it’s in business, writing, or anything else in life. They push through.

I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Last week’s word is . . . perseverance.

Along with babysitting, I had my sister and her daughter and granddaughter come for a day. I learned long ago that the best way to handle company is to have all the food done ahead of time, otherwise you end up spending all your time in the kitchen. So figuring out what to feed people and then making as much of it ahead of time as I could was time-consuming.

Which means, once again I got very little writing done, with the exception of my blog posts. But the fact I’m organized enough to get that done in spite of all my time commitments lately gives me hope that I’ll be able to slide into the writing groove once summer is over and school’s back in session.

Could I get more writing done while babysitting? Probably. The granddaughter is pretty good at entertaining herself. But she’s not going to be eight-years-old forever, and once she’s back in school I won’t be seeing as much of her, so I don’t want to waste too much of our time together.

It’s all a matter of priorities.

NEW WORDS:
2229+793+235+933=4190
UP 305 – words from last week

Getting my blog posts done last week was a bit more of a struggle than the week before. Some of the problem was my mood, some of it was a sleep issue. It hasn’t been overly hot, like it was in July, but it was hot enough to heat up the upstairs enough to make it uncomfortable for sleeping. The air conditioning unit we have is out in the hallway, and while it does a good job of keeping things cool, it’s pretty noisy, which does not make for a good night’s sleep.

I don’t see a solution to this problem until the weather cools off, so it’s just going to have to be something I deal with. I’m not exactly sure how, mind you. But I’m usually able to muddle through.

I fell behind a bit in my getting things done early, so that’s on me too. I need to take my own advice on pushing through, although some days this is easier to achieve than others. But it is what it is, and as long as I keep moving forward it’s all good.

I did consider (briefly) taking another blogging vacation, but I get kind of antsy when I do that. I still want to do my posts. I suppose I could write them anyway, just to have some in reserve for a really bad week, but that seems kind of silly – if I’m going to write them anyway, I might as well just post them, right?

Goals For Next Week:
Get my blog posts written a little earlier.

EDITING:
0 hours

Still no good news on the editing, although that stack of printed pages has been calling to me. The problem is, it’s easier to just pick up my stitchery when the granddaughter is entertaining herself than those pages. Of course I keep my stitchery bag out in the living room, and my pages in my office, so it’s easier to access.

A smart person would bring the pages out to the living room, wouldn’t they? I guess it’s something to think about. It’s not like it’s a good copy or anything, so if a page or two gets mangled it’s no big deal.

And at this point, any progress is good progress, right?

Goal For Next Week:
Start marking up Elemental Spirit.

POETRY:
Last week’s form was a pretty simple one. So simple, I doubled up on my example again. The resulting poem was okay, but it sure wouldn’t win any prizes.

I’ve been thinking more and more about the poetry anthology I want to do. Once babysitting is off the table I’m going to pull out my big book o’ poems and go through it, maybe even update it with the poems I’ve done in the last couple of years.

I don’t know if it’ll make a difference to compiling an anthology or not, but probably 98% of my poems do not have the date they were written on them. Yikes! I’ve gotten better since I started posting them online – I save them in folders according to year. I can consult my blog to see what the date was I posted these ones, it should be close enough to when I wrote them.

I guess this is something else I could be plugging away at in my spare time. You know, when school starts up and I have spare time again. :-)

Goal For Next Week:
Get a new form ready to share.

CRAFTING:
It was a kind of meh week last week and we didn’t really do much in the way of crafts. I did offer to get another ice tie dye kit to use on some aprons I have, but was met with a luke warm response. LOL

Crafts can be fun, but you can also get tired of it after a while, so last week we kind of took a break. But we still have papier mâché we haven’t tried. I don’t get a newspaper, but I saw online a recipe for making kind of a paper clay using shredded paper, water, and glue. It sounds pretty messy, but I think it will be fun. No worse than doing it one strip at a time.

And maybe we can give jewelry making another try too – who doesn’t like jewelry?

Her interest in stitchery petered out pretty quickly. I’m thinking I should have given her a felt square to practice on first. Her stitches are a little inconsistent in size, and while I assure her it doesn’t have to be perfect, some of them are really all over there. I sewed a line of red, just as a guide line, partway around the edge of the blanket. I’m hoping by the time she gets to the end of it she’ll have a better idea of how big the stitches should be. If not, I’ll just extend the guideline around the rest of the blanket. Three out of five days this week are supposed to be rainy, which is always a good day for stitchery.

One of those days we’re supposed to get rain is the day of the summer luncheon with my stitchery group. Doesn’t it just figure, when it’s being held in a garden?

Goal For Next Week:
Continue on my samplers; organize jewelry supplies better.

WHAT I’M READING:
It was a slow week for reading. I’m still reading Stories With Bite, a collection of vampire stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but more or less just one story at a time. It’s going to take a while I think.

On the Kindle, I finished Dragon Betrayed, by Ophelia Bell, the origin story for her Immortal Dragon series. Next up is Pushin’ Buttons, the first in the Boot Knocker Ranch series by Em Petrova.

Goal For Next Week:
Spend a wee bit more time reading.

THE WEEK AHEAD:

Once again my top priority is babysitting, which seems like a silly term to me, because the granddaughter is eight, so she’s hardly a baby. But once again, the weather is coolish and we’re supposed to get rain three out of five days, so it’s unlikely we’ll have much pool time. Well, not unless we want to court hypothermia.

I have a couple more crafts lined up – papier mâché and jewelry making, and I’ll see if I can revive her interest in stitchery again. I forgot about my idea of doing painted rocks last week. Weather permitting, maybe we can give it a try this week.

I’m kind of surprised at how much I’m enjoying working on Winter’s Child. The original version was squeezed into a 4,000 word short story, and I’m realizing it was always meant to be longer. I’ve been developing James’s character more, and I’m really liking him. At the same time, I feel kind of sorry for him, having to live with the influence of the stories all these years, and the unresolved conflict with his father. And since I know how the story ends, I’ll be feeling even more sympathy for him yet.

I think my idea of storing my mark up copy of An Elemental Spirit out here is a good one. With me it’s “out of sight, out of mind” so having it sit on the typewriter in a pile of stuff isn’t exactly in sight. Having it out in the living room it gets a better chance of being noticed.

I didn’t make as much time for reading last week as I’ve been doing. I find the Arthur Conan Doyle book slow going, but I’m persistent. When I finished the dragon book on my Kindle, I finally had to recharge it. So now I’m all queued up to binge read.

I didn’t make the greatest use of my time last week, but I’m holding steady on what track I’ve got. The end of summer is in sight, so I have until then to make excuses.

Right now instead of a train looking for the right track, I’m more like a boat trying to stay on an even keel.

Toot toot!