Tag: life

Defeating Your Draggin’ Dragon

Over the last two weeks, I have finally completed a project that I procrastinated for over 3 years. I am relieved and exhausted.

During the long era of paralyzed delay, the anxiety around my failure to take action on it felt like a tight grip around my chest. Whenever the subject was brought up, I would slip into a shame spiral of sighs and grumbles.

Sometimes you swirl around in avoidance of a task, only to find that it is way easier and less time consuming than you expected.

This was not that case.

The Gentle Way Through Overwhelm

I often overbook myself, take on too much, and resist pulling out of any commitments when I realize I am past my limits.

My German mom and workaholic dad taught me to just push on through the overwhelm. I am grateful for the fortitude they instilled in me, but I am trying to learn a new way.

I want to make different choices when I get this drained and fried out.

So I got up, and put away the tools and work gear. I tidied up the mess from the partially done big task. I accepted that it would reside in limbo.

This felt like a big shift for me. I didn’t push through. I backtracked. I paused. I prioritized my focus on one zone to manage, instead of spreading myself too thin.

How to Help Life Suck Less

Scrolling through Reddit this week, I came across a post on r/ask simply titled, “Does Life Suck? Why / why not?”

People gave all variety of answers, from long pep talks to short, sullen statements to philosophical meanderings.

It got me thinking about how both are inherently true, life has lovely aspects and awful aspects, and we are all going to get a mix.

The real question is how to make life suck less.
It’s different for each of us, but here are some of my personal tried and true ways . . .