Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Biting off more than you can chew

Don't bite off more than you can chew.

No, this is not a blog post about food. Although it is advisable to not put more food into your mouth than you are able to chew because you will then look like a barbarian as the pieces of food drip down your mouth and onto your lap. Definitely not the behavior expected of a gentleman or lady.

This blog post is rather about not over committing yourself.

Has anybody noticed how when there isn't all that much to do, and you are becoming slightly “bored” with life, you start to find things to do. You create commitments to activities and then suddenly, instead of finding yourself in a light drizzle of activity, you are in a downpour and seem to not get to everything you are now committed to doing?

This happens to me time and time again. When I was younger, I started pen palling. I made friends with people all over the world through snail mail letters. I was bored during a December holiday and I wrote a letter. Then I read somewhere that only 1 in 10 letters you send out generate replies, so I sent out 10 letters. After a month, I was coping quite nicely with my 2-3 pen pals, and decided I wanted more letters in the post, so I sent out 10 letters to new people again, and then suddenly I had 14 pen pals before I knew what happened. You see, about 7 from each batch of 10 replied. I did not expect that.

I was coping quite well with the 14 pen pals, until I started working and studying at the same time. So I was faced with a scenario where each pen pal demands 1 hour of my time once a month to write a decent length letter, I was spending all my free time (the time I wasn't studying or working, writing letters to pen pals. It became more of a chore than a fun experience and that is when I said “ENOUGH” and cut off my pen palling.

But I still missed writing, and hence why I started this blog. I love writing. I express my thoughts much better through written word. And here is a little secret... I dislike talking on the telephone. I'm much more comfortable talking in person or through an email. That is why you won't catch me phoning somebody “just to chat”. I'm not sure why this is, I just prefer it that way.

Back to biting off more than you can chew. Yeah, I sort of did that with this blog. For a while I was trying to make an update or new post every day. You know what? That isn't working for me. Life moves quickly, a person needs to live in the moment. I'm busy all the time, and I'm blessed that the things which make me busy are things I love to do.

I love the work I do. I love programming and solving logical puzzles. I love finding creative and fool-proof ways of doing things. I love the time I spend at home, I even love doing the laundry and washing dishes (not too fond of ironing clothes though). I find that working with my hands is relaxing for my mind and working with my mind is relaxing for my body.

I'm sure everyone has experienced moments when they have bitten off more than they can chew, so I'm just asking readers to put up with me on this! I'll be sure to have a recipe every Friday, but until further notice, all other posts will come up as I feel inspired and as I find the time to write them.

We need to live a life in order to have a life worth writing about!

1 comment:

  1. I know exactly what you mean. I am the same with my blog. My orginal goal was to write everyday, but soon realized that was not working. I now write every few days. Keep up the good work, and enjoy your new found free time.
    deb
    <><
    www.thefiveacrewoods.com

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