BRICK TO THE HEAD #24: Stop Crying and Carry On

February 26, 2013 — brick to the head, consistency, effort, field trips, kids, mom, overwhelmed, professional mom, sanity, world-class

Feeling a little overwhelmed and exhausted this morning I popped into my local Cheers (I mean Starbucks), where everybody knows my name, for my morning iV of caffeinated bliss. All wrapped up in my own self-righteous cape of “super everythingness”, teetering on the brink of insanity (“I Don’t Know How She Does It”) I run into a couple of moms from my daughters class who have stopped in for their caffeine infusion, shortly before they have to play chaperone at the zoo to 24 J-kers with the attention spans of gnats. (let’s see how many more really long sentences I can come up with)

They ask if I’m going on the field trip today. I peak out from under my cape and say, noooo! Been there, done that, with my older daughter. Not doing the zoo thing today. I’ve gotta get to the office. (insert Barney Pfeif sniff here) One of the moms then proceeds to tell us how she’s leaving town tomorrow for a 10-day business trip across the country and what bad timing this is because her husband, the CPA, is chin deep in tax season. They have three children under the age of 6. I cringe! Holy crap! How does she do it?

I’ve got two kids. One is completely independent, barring driving and having a job, and I’m not preparing to leave for 10 days. My husband is drowning at work, but surviving alright and not in crisis mode. And, I opted out of the field trip today. Hmmmm! BRICK TO THE HEAD

I arrive at my studio, having slipped back into harried mode, sit down at my desk, sip my coffee and think, “Where do I start?” (insert self doubt here) I decide to dive into email and open an eye-catching note from one of my mentors, who’s shared an article on effort and how it always takes more than what you think. Effort, that wonderful thing you have to exert to get better at anything. Effort, that thing all movies and TV shows lead you to believe takes 20 minutes and a some “wash on – wash off”. (fuck off, Karate Kid) Effort, that thing I can give more of to just about everything.

Instead of trying so hard and overwhelming myself with effort overload, I realize I’ve gotta give effort to one thing at a time, one day at a time. That’s what practice is. Daily. Weekly. Annually working on something until it becomes effortless. There’s a great quote I found recently that says:

“World-class comes from little improvements done every day with great consistency.”

I guess my problem is that I tell myself I should be world-class at everything all at the same time. Impossible. (If you disagree, you’re a lying closet drinker.)

BRICK TO THE HEAD #24: Stop Crying and Carry On

One moment at a time. One post-it at a time. One list at a time. There’s always somebody out there who’s worse off than me. I’ve gotta carry on now.

Stay sane, my friends. (pardon the multi-topic jumbalaya)