Monday Musings

Time wasters: they are everywhere.  I have a couple of "to do" projects that I am avoiding.  I've volunteered to write an article on a presentation by Prof. Emeritus Alan Brownstein on the Supreme Court decision in the Masterpiece Cake shop V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.  An impossibly difficult case which I now must report on for our in-house newspaper.  Oy.  The other "to do" is to make some photographic greeting cards for our little in-house convenience store to sell.  This requires getting up super early in the morning when the light is good and the heat is not yet upon us.

Instead, I am sleeping in and mentally bemoaning that at some point I must get out of bed.  With Herculean effort, I rise and make my  cuppa and go to the computer to browse email and Face book. There it is: the time wasters!  This morning was particularly wasteful: looking at profiles of people who are friends of Face book friends, people I don't even know, and looking through their photographs, their links to on-line businesses, links to news articles that are just the same blather about how loathsome our current government is.  Sometimes I even waste time by shopping for shoes on line. I don't need any more shoes.  That goes without saying. 

When I realized how far down the rabbit hole I had gone, well, I left the computer and went down the hall to make some copies of the professor's presentation.

What a rut.

Of course, here I am, back again at the computer.  Because you, dear reader, really need this post, right? 

I watched an rather insipid video made by a young woman who ended every sentence as if it were a question.  She was giving tips on methods she has found to get herself out of a rut.  Helpful for those in her age group, but she was so annoying in her speech patterns that I could bear to watch.   

I had a therapist once who told me the greatest thing (many times):  "Let's not pathologize this."    The statement immediately freed me from spinning out on an issue.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  So I'm in a rut?  Who isn't?  So I waste time when avoiding tasks?  Doesn't just about everyone who ever lived?

I can lighten up on myself, that's for damn sure.   The bulk of my day turned out to be productive and fairly fun.  Talked with an old pal, talked with my daughter, and laughed with my husband.  Now we're going up to dinner and I'm going to dine on blackened salmon, friends.

Another victory.  Another day of pulling myself out of the negative mind set.  It's an on going project.

What do you do when you find yourself in a rut?  I'm compiling a list.