Sunday, October 2, 2011

Inspiration Re-Direct

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Rainbows always inspire me.

Do you you ever notice when you get inspired to do something, your inspiration wanders a bit?  I have a sort of creative A.D.D.  As soon as I start a project, I find about three other tasks that “must” get done now.

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Gotta squeeze the limes before they go bad.  Seems I always have more fruit than we can eat so I cut it up and freeze it for smoothies later.

This used to bother me, and even restrict my ability to complete a project.  Now, however, I embrace my short attention span.  In this revelation, I have also learned a special benefit to a short attention span.  In the interest of staying on point, I will explain this benefit at the end of my post.

Two ways I deal with my inability to stay on task are to keep a “to-do” list handy and to keep about three activities to which I can bounce around.  It seems working on one activity causes me to think about the other activity.  By keeping multiple activities available, I can redirect my creative thought process.  The list helps me remember what I was doing last.

coffee and chocolate cupcake

For regular followers, you may notice I have updated my blog background.  This is a result of working on a game I am doing at my daughter’s “Say Yes to the Dress” party.  As I was developing the game, I got distracted with a picture, which led me to creating the cup and cupcake cutout.  I also learned a few new things about using Gimp, which helped me work on the party game.

paper doll wedding dress v halter no ribbon
Making paper doll dresses through a process of digital cutting, using the free photo editor, Gimp.

My party game is coming along nicely, actually.  I’m very happy to be updating my blog for the new season.  I’m really glad to have a post ready for Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.  Be sure to check out Amy’s blog.  Her blog really encourages me to stay on task, and I learn a lot of great family and home-making techniques.

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The point I want to make about the benefit of a short attention span is the ability to forget the bad and negative moments of your life, particularly if someone has wronged you in some way.  You can’t change how people behave.  You can only change how you respond.  If you find you need to forgive someone, even for small wrongs, you need to put it behind you and truly forgive them.  Part of that is the forgetting about it.  I don’t mean this in a surface-type of forgetting, where you continue to hold a grudge.  If you redirect your thoughts on the subject to something beneficial and positive, you are more prepared to forgive and forget.  Make that short attention span work for you!

1 comment:

Self Sagacity said...

You are so right Beth. Thanks for shedding some light today on your post! I think we have something in common here and it has been described perfectly by you. ADD to do something right away, I have that. Also thumbs up on your thoughts about being short attention span is good - I forgive most people who have wronged me...etc. While I know some people who just won't let go of things and it is annoying. Moving on, moving ahead is better than locking yourself up in a rut. Yay!
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