How goes it?
It’s been a while since I posted.
Last week I was silent–
I was combing through things in storage and was under a deadline.
Do you have a mountain of things in storage?
What about in your mind?
What about on your todo list?
Notebooks and documents spilling everywhere?
When you face a mountain of things you need to deal with, what do you do?
I tend to get overwhelmed easily and go into fight or flight.
It’s times like those where I need to breathe, maybe take a break or a walk.
It’s good to get grounded but it’s only the first step.
The next step is to COME BACK.
Always come back later to chip away some more…
Well except for if you decide to quit–
And that can be okay, too.
Maybe instead of sorting the documents you decide they are ten years old and useless and you should shred or recycle them.
Maybe instead of finishing that cross-stitch project, you decide to throw it in the trash.
Quitting and Giving up are things that have a bad rap.
But they can be incredibly useful tools in the right circumstances!
When I’m overwhelmed, I find it helpful to ask myself
if it’s time to quit something, or at least postpone.
Because the weight of expectations I put on myself
to do ALL THE THINGS
can be heavier than 10 boxes loaded with junk in my storage.
And that brings me to an article I published recently on this topic!
Ungoaling:
Not Hanging on Too Hard to Your Goals
Once upon a time, there was a little girl. As young as eleven, she was speeding through life at top speed, intent to check every box, achieve every goal, and reach the finish line of success.
Until the day came, when she looked up, and thought, “Maybe there is no finish line, maybe that’s made up.”
She saw all the time that had passed, all the effort she’d expended. And for what? She could have just spent more time daydreaming and staring at the ceiling and maybe she would have felt happier that way.
From then on, she didn’t feel particularly motivated to try and set so many goals anymore…And the beautiful thing is, she let that be ok.
That little girl was me and, ‘ungoaling’ is a name I made up for the process of detaching and releasing the need to cling to all of my goals.
In the 36 years of my life, I’ve set many goals and pursued them wholeheartedly. I’ve worked to check each off of my list with single-minded focus and intensity. But achieving those goals never felt as satisfying as I thought it was going to be.
In the last few years there’s something I’ve begun to think deeply about:
If you’re searching for treasure, it’s not just about digging a deep hole, really fast. First, make sure that you’re digging in the right spot.
Read the rest of the “UnGoaling” article on page 24 of the Free On Purpose Woman Magazine
Read past posts on organizing:
Ready to work on MENTALLY organizing your thoughts and writing?
-The Paradox of Information + Writing
This is about the fact that the more information you save, the harder it is to find anything. Here’s what I do about this.
-10x your healing, writing this way
This is about the encyclopedia of ME I created to 10x my healing journey!
-morning and writing routines
This is about an inspiring ritual I started to use to heal from burnout. It really inspires my writing.
-the wrong question to ask about forgetting good ideas
If you keep forgetting about your best ideas, check this one out!
Thanks for reading!
P.S Don’t be too hard on yourself! It’s okay to give up and quit something.
