Regardless of what political views or moral codes you subscribe to, most people hold an idealized concept of how they think the world would work if everyone held the same beliefs and lived by the same rules. Some people strive to make those ideals a reality. They engage in protests. They participate in letter-writing campaigns. They attempt to teach as many people as they can about their philosophies. These can be good things that bring about positive changes in our world, and yet we often see in the media how these actions polarize people into "us v them."
Personal Deadlines Pros and Cons
Deadlines can be wonderful things. They can help push you to accomplish more within a specified timespan than what you would find the motivation to do on your own. However, they can also make you feel pressured to put less time into a project than what you would like to give in order to finish it within a decided period.
Find Your Own Method
I feel like I got absolutely nothing done this past weekend. I spent most of my time reading, playing games, and reconnecting with music that I haven't listened to in years. But overall, I made no progress on any of my creative projects. Does this mean my weekend was wasted? That depends on who you ask...
A Case of Too Many Details…
Today I was reading an article on the indictment of several coal mine supervisors for manipulating equipment and data meant to keep miners safe. Several of the miners who worked under them have developed black lung disease as a result of years of exposure to elevated levels of coal dust, levels that their equipment should have shown to be unsafe had the supervisors not told those miners to interfere with the equipment's ability to collect accurate data. So basically, the focus of the article was black lung disease and the regulations put in place by the US federal government to help protect miners from this disease as well as other mining hazards. However...
Finding Your In-Person Motivators
This weekend I found myself spending some unexpected time with my current writing project. Friday afternoon I met up with some of my teammates for this year's GISHWHES scavenger hunt, and after several hours of hanging out with other creative people, I felt the need to push my own creativity for the rest of the weekend.
The Bad Side of Nostalgia
Summer can be a time of nostalgia. Family vacations, festivals, days trips to local interest spots all bring back memories of our childhoods as we share favorite places and activities with our new friends and children. But nostalgia can also bring with it melancholy. Sometimes I've found this to be true for me, and over the years, I've learned to identify certain things that, even though I love them, I know will drop me into a period of depression.
Any Progress is Better than No Progress
For me, this weekend has proven that having multiple interests and hobbies helps boost my productivity. At times I have struggled to balance all of my hobbies within my limited free time, but that was not the case during the past few days. I'm still heartbroken about my current job situation, and such feelings often kill my creativity. But I refuse to let my sorrow take over this time.
Sometimes We Need to Walk Away
When it comes to stressful situations, there comes a point where it is healthier to stop caring than it is to continue investing time and energy to worrying. Unfortunately, it seems that all of us have hit that point in my office.
Being Family, Being Support, Being Supported
Over the weekend, I attended another Supernatural Convention. The SPNFamily is incredible in their inclusiveness and their caring. All weekend we heard the messages encouraging us to support one another and to not fear asking for help when we need it, that it's okay to not be okay.
Slowing Down to Speed Up Progress
For those of us engaged in creative pursuits (writing, music, photography, visual arts, etc.), free time is not often free. For us, free time is a valuable commodity that we rarely have enough of to satisfy our minds and desires. While some of us are known to procrastinate more frequently than we'd like to admit, when we are in a creative burst, there is no safe way to get between us and our passions. However, life sometimes demands that we take a break.
HLHumbert 