GraybeardGhost
Well-known member
This morning, I was washing the dishes—because I like to see my kitchen counters once in a while to make sure they're still there—and as I was soaking and scrubbing and rinsing and racking—drying is for suckers—I got to thinking about a girl I knew back in high school. She was a real standout: sweet, blonde, a little ditzy (though actually quite smart underneath), kind of a hippie/peacenik type, and nice to everyone—a real rarity in a prep school swimming with future sharks and barracuda—and she was beautiful, breathtakingly so. I'll admit I had something of a crush on her back in the day. (There may have been poems. :shyness
I happened to look her up on Facebook not too long ago, and learned that not only does she now live in the same town as I—an odd coincidence as our high school was several hundred miles from here—but she has forged herself a career in the life-coaching industry. You know—the books, the DVDs, fancy website, fancy price tag, all that. She does personal counseling, too, I believe, for women and "very cool men." Just what I need, I've often thought, and so nearby . . . and so familiar . . . and so awkward.
I don't think I'll contact her, as doing so would stir up a lot of old garbage best left to decay on the compost heap of time: Do you remember that time when . . . Did you hear about . . . Have you seen . . . and worst of all, What have you been doing for the last thirty years? Yes. Yes. No. Nothing.
Nothing. It's funny (and it's not) how much shame and disappointment can fit into that word. So many years lost, so much talent and potential gone to waste. It's not an especially big word, but it can hold a lot of hurt. Yes, I may need a life coach—at my age?mg:—but I don't think she's the gal for me.
I will borrow one idea from her, though, which may not be original, but which I believe could be useful to a lot of people, including me. That brings me to the point of this thread—you were wondering, weren't you?—and here it is: she advocates choosing three things out of all you have to do (or want to do), and just doing them. That's it. From all those big and little things that pile up on lists and notes and in dusty corners of the mind, just three, just like that, done, right now, today. No, not very original, but a sound idea nonetheless. So simple, right?.
Well, maybe. The woman in question is bubbly and vivacious and bursting with positive energy and good cheer, or so her website would lead one to believe. Sure, the happiness racket requires a certain image, but I'm willing to buy it. She was like that back then, so why not now? The thing is, I'm not—not much energy, not much cheer, no bubbles. I'm dour and unmotivated and chronically fatigued. My glass is more than half empty and there's something growing in the sludge at the bottom. To me, three things sounds like a lot to ask. It shouldn't, because it isn't, but it does. I'll settle for one, and thus the title of this thread.
Today, I will do one thing. Today, one task completed through and through, finished and done, and ticked off the list for good. I don't yet know what it will be. This morning, I washed the dishes, but there'll be more to wash tomorrow. I'll probably take a shower later, but the funk will rise again. Grocery shopping, if I dare? That's more like it, as at this point both the need and the trepidation have grown to such outrageous proportions that any progress will be a triumph worthy of a ticker-tape parade, but I don't know if that's it either. Something big (but not necessarily). Something permanent (but maybe not). Something to leave me with a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Yeah, that's the ticket. Today, I will do one thing. What will it be? :question:
It's a challenge, and I'd like to know if anyone else is up for it, too. What will you do today? What one thing will you do to improve yourself, your place in the world, and your life? Sounds like positive-thinking, daily-affirmation horseshit, doesn't it? Sounds hard, too. Yeah, I don't know if I'm really up for it either, to be perfectly honest. Even the very best intentions can slip away from me like a greased pig at the county fair, and just as fast. I have to do something, though. I have to do something to turn my nothing into something while I still can. Maybe you do too. So tell me, what's it going to be?
I happened to look her up on Facebook not too long ago, and learned that not only does she now live in the same town as I—an odd coincidence as our high school was several hundred miles from here—but she has forged herself a career in the life-coaching industry. You know—the books, the DVDs, fancy website, fancy price tag, all that. She does personal counseling, too, I believe, for women and "very cool men." Just what I need, I've often thought, and so nearby . . . and so familiar . . . and so awkward.
I don't think I'll contact her, as doing so would stir up a lot of old garbage best left to decay on the compost heap of time: Do you remember that time when . . . Did you hear about . . . Have you seen . . . and worst of all, What have you been doing for the last thirty years? Yes. Yes. No. Nothing.
Nothing. It's funny (and it's not) how much shame and disappointment can fit into that word. So many years lost, so much talent and potential gone to waste. It's not an especially big word, but it can hold a lot of hurt. Yes, I may need a life coach—at my age?
mg:—but I don't think she's the gal for me. I will borrow one idea from her, though, which may not be original, but which I believe could be useful to a lot of people, including me. That brings me to the point of this thread—you were wondering, weren't you?—and here it is: she advocates choosing three things out of all you have to do (or want to do), and just doing them. That's it. From all those big and little things that pile up on lists and notes and in dusty corners of the mind, just three, just like that, done, right now, today. No, not very original, but a sound idea nonetheless. So simple, right?.
Well, maybe. The woman in question is bubbly and vivacious and bursting with positive energy and good cheer, or so her website would lead one to believe. Sure, the happiness racket requires a certain image, but I'm willing to buy it. She was like that back then, so why not now? The thing is, I'm not—not much energy, not much cheer, no bubbles. I'm dour and unmotivated and chronically fatigued. My glass is more than half empty and there's something growing in the sludge at the bottom. To me, three things sounds like a lot to ask. It shouldn't, because it isn't, but it does. I'll settle for one, and thus the title of this thread.
Today, I will do one thing. Today, one task completed through and through, finished and done, and ticked off the list for good. I don't yet know what it will be. This morning, I washed the dishes, but there'll be more to wash tomorrow. I'll probably take a shower later, but the funk will rise again. Grocery shopping, if I dare? That's more like it, as at this point both the need and the trepidation have grown to such outrageous proportions that any progress will be a triumph worthy of a ticker-tape parade, but I don't know if that's it either. Something big (but not necessarily). Something permanent (but maybe not). Something to leave me with a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Yeah, that's the ticket. Today, I will do one thing. What will it be? :question:
It's a challenge, and I'd like to know if anyone else is up for it, too. What will you do today? What one thing will you do to improve yourself, your place in the world, and your life? Sounds like positive-thinking, daily-affirmation horseshit, doesn't it? Sounds hard, too. Yeah, I don't know if I'm really up for it either, to be perfectly honest. Even the very best intentions can slip away from me like a greased pig at the county fair, and just as fast. I have to do something, though. I have to do something to turn my nothing into something while I still can. Maybe you do too. So tell me, what's it going to be?
