If I could kick the person in the tail that causes me the most problems I could not sit down for a week. ~ Will Rogers
By late this afternoon I was so pissed at myself that, if I could, I would have kicked my own ass. I had no appointments today, Alex has been in an excellent mood—which means he hasn’t been clawing me to do something or other—and I had a list of things to do around the house that excites me since I’ll not be immediately relocating. So I prioritized the list and began working on the top five items.
The number one item was to organize (and dispose of the unnecessary) papers I have around the house. I really do sometimes need to be able to find stuff, and since I have unorganized documents going back I don't know how many years, putting them in some logical order has been an ongoing project for the past forty or so years.
I began with my book cases, figuring that once I have gotten papers off those shelves I can out up maybe another hundred books. By 5:00 p.m. I had finished only about three-quarters of the book cases and that’s when I felt like kicking myself. Here it was late afternoon and I had not even completed one of my goals. I should have been done with it and on to another project hours ago.
It was about this point that my logical self came online and put an end to myself self flagellation, pointing out:
- I always over schedule myself (have since I was a child) and expect to accomplish much more than is possible.
- My health is not what it was: today I was exhausted and had difficulty breathing after carrying two boxes of papers across the room.
- I had accomplished quite a bit—my bookcases are almost empty of everything except books.
- And, finally, the word should
shouldbe stricken from the English language.
Contemplating those statements, I decided to stop kicking myself for not accomplishing all I thought that I should do. Of course, I then began kicking myself for kicking myself. Could it be that subconsciously I get something out of self-kicking? I don't know.
Here is one of the pictures of Muffin—I really must blog Muffin stories soon—that I found this afternoon:
Muffin on our trip to visit friends in 
Muffin is a cute pooch.
ReplyDeleteI find myself kicking my self, too, and then wondering why.
ReplyDeleteMuffin is adorable!
Ack. The never-ending pile-o-crap. I too suffer from the inability to ever get it completely filed before it can breed new piles in other parts of the house.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to read towards the end of your post that you cut yourself some slack...concentrate on the GOOD. What you DID get done...and the fun you found while doing it! You have time - relax...enjoy the process. Such a great lesson you taught yourself today! ;-)
ReplyDeleteit sounds like you've accomplished more than i have in a long time. way to go! maybe you should stop kicking yourself in the ass and kick me in mine instead...sigh! and i think muffin is the cutest dog! she looks very huggable.
ReplyDeleteRemember Brother Dave Gardner’s comedy album (or as he would say “ablum”) of our youth? It was entitled “Kick Thy Own Self” and that is all I can think of since reading this.
ReplyDeleteI do better when I set goals based on time rather than results. "I will clean this room for an hour" is less frustrating than "I will make this room spotless."
ReplyDeleteI still get where I wanted to go, it's just a different way to frame it.
I have always had dogs. Actually I had a couple of Siamese cats until I met my wife....she is allergic to cats. I can't look at pictured of my dogs that have passed on. It is just too sad. It seems more joyous to just think about them and their antics. I currently have 3 Dachshunds. Now that is a challenge. They keep both me and my wife hopping.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely dog!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you enjoy the kicking or being kicked too much. Stop it!
aaaw, so kyoot!
ReplyDelete