Not Doing a Thing Can Be EXHAUSTING

Not doing a thing can be EXHAUSTING.

Here’s what I mean. There’s the thing you can do, and there are all the things you’re not going to get to do. And it makes a huge difference where you put your attention.

When I make my To Do lists, the time allotted is usually built on the assumption of a perfect world in which I have immediately at hand every possible size socket wrench, a wide array of spare fuses, and am unburdened by the impacts of friction, rust, gravity, traffic, buried tree roots, and other people’s needs.

So, I frequently end up in a position where I realize I’m not going to get to many of the things on my ambitious list. And sometimes I settle into a malaise of I SUCK BECAUSE I CAN’T DO IT ALL. And then the best I can hope for becomes a prorated slightly-less-sucky quotient, depending on how much I actually *do* get done. In this scenario, there is no measure of success, only of less failure.

Buried under all that is often a stress-inducing judgment that I’M SUPPOSED to be able to do it all. Or, if I had only been better organized, it wouldn’t come down to this kind of Sophie’s Choice (Take down Halloween?? Or scrub the grout???). Or if I were only smarter I could hurry up and figure out a strategy RIGHT NOW for getting it all done. Or, or, or…..

Unless I stop doing that. Which I can do, if I pause a moment, take a breath, and redirect my focus to the thing in front of me. And that makes all the difference.

Because then I’m only in one place at a time. I’m here, now, doing this thing. I’m not also over there, and over there, and over there, fretting about those things as I’m not doing them. 

There are many things worth doing. I will not get to them all today. And that’s okay. And I’m okay.

Just do the thing. Don’t wear yourself out not-doing everything else.