Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Create an Easier Way

My psychologist husband tells me I like to create "Great Wall of China projects." And it's true that I seem drawn to doing things the hard way. For example, I made a quilt with a needle and thread.

But I'd rather not have to do everything the most difficult way, or the high-stress bear-down-hard way, especially finishing books. Which brings me to:

Book 4 in my personal series of Rediscovered Treasures

The book is Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and it's all small stuff by Richard Carlson, a wise fellow indeed. My natural inclination is to sweat the big stuff and think it's all big stuff. So I like this book a lot, not that I've put a huge lot of it into practice.

Here's one title of this collection of tiny, pithy essays about taking it easier and having a good, productive life anyway.

"Let Go of the Idea that Gentle, Relaxed People Can't Be Superachievers"

Carlson makes several excellent points in this 4-paragraph gem.

*getting out of emergency mode does not mean giving up good results
*fear and frenzy get in the way of creativity
*feeling calm and peaceful makes for better concentration

Good, yes? I'm going to reread the whole book. Slowly. Peacefully.



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3 comments:

billie said...

This is interesting - I agree with the idea of getting out of emergency mode. I also know that in some way, my tendency for frenzy (always over the smaller things) in some way fuels my creative self.

Without exactly trying, I have developed my own little routine of "embracing the frenzy" w/o increasing or perpetuating it, and almost think of it now as the "charging up" part of a much bigger process. It becomes more about the energy than the actual details I'm fretting over, and those are pretty easy to let go of.

I suspect what I've done is learn to engage that energy and then let it push the creative process - writing, or whatever else I'm working on.

Life here on the farm is pretty zen-like, and I've noticed that without a little bit of the "frenzy" to fuel things, I can get so much a part of the zen I don't do much else.

I have to think the frenzy is part of the creative process - but maybe that's an un-evolved way of looking at it!

Ken said...

Peggy,
I like you blog.
Your posts often hit home.
Thanks

Peggy Payne said...

Thanks, Ken.

And Billie, I think that whatever works is quite evolved. And what you're doing is an excellent strategy, sort of like jumping up and down to get warmed up.

So much of this is a matter of temperament. I too live out in the country, but am fairly tightly-wound by nature, I think. So I don't feel at risk of getting too zen.