I thought I’d update you on some of the things I had previously posted about . . .
The seventeen-year-old girl who was in a car accident not too long ago finally woke up from her coma. She’s talking and should be able to go home sometime this week. I don’t know anything else but that. I’ve heard she’s a bit slow, and her memory is foggy. I’m not sure if that’s true or not because living in a small town like I do, stories tend to get distorted when it’s circulated from person to person. So I’ll have to ask her mom when I see her again.
Some of the people in my town got together and had done a benefit for that girl to financially help her and her family out.
That’s one of the wonderful things about living in a small community. When a tragedy happens, the community gets together to help that person and family with whatever they need.
The family of the sixteen-year-old girl who was driving and died already had the funeral.
The convenience store here in town wrote on one of those signs–you know, the signs where they slide letters into a big square board that stands on a tall pole–‘We’ll miss you, Ashley.’
When I drove by and saw it, I bursted into tears. My town also made bracelets with Ashley’s name on it, to raise money for her family.
I’ll tell ya what, when I see people come together in love and support for one another, it deeply touches me and restores my faith in humanity.
Do you know what I mean?
Every day we see so much violence, hurt, and pain in this world. But there are people who genuinely love and care for others. I’m fortunate enough to experience that here, and will forever be grateful for it.
Now moving on to my shower situation.
Kevin had pulled off the surround in the shower, and we ran into a plumbing problem. It wasn’t as bad as we thought; however, we were without a shower for over a week. After the plumber took a look at our problem, he showed us how we could take a bath until the part he needed to fix it came in. So that’s what we did. I don’t particularly care for baths because it’s like sitting in your own dirt, but I prefer that to taking a sink bath.
When Kevin did the drywall and hung the new surround up, it was difficult to do. The reason why is because the walls in old houses are crooked. I asked Kevin why, and he told me because back in the 1930s they didn’t have the equipment we have today to build houses. Therefore, Kevin had to fit the new surround on those crooked walls.
Anyway, that’s all taken care of.
On Saturday, Kevin began tearing down our front inclosed porch. The floor slants down because it used to be a regular porch. They built it that way so when it rained the water would run away from the house. However, the numbnuts who built the inclosed porch did it half ass. So we ran into a bigger problem.
I’ll spare you the further details, but in short, the porch is going to be expensive to rebuild. On the bright side, though, it’ll be done right and will add value to our house.
Work is still challenging, but eventually I’ll get through it. What I’m doing is dealing with today instead of worrying about tomorrow. And this job will help me accomplish my goals.
My editor is awesome, but I already told you guys that. :) I’ve been working with him, so I’ve been super busy.
Speaking of super busy, I have to go to work now. I hope you have a good week. I’ll be back on Friday.
I was talking to Kevin on Saturday about being overwhelmed with my job and life in general. Afterwards, he told me a good analogy about life.
It’s a confidence course, just like in the military.
But before I get into that analogy, I’m going to give you an idea of what I’ve been going through lately.
I had been doing the block-of-time (remember that post?), and I was able to crank out chapters for my third book. But then a monkey wrench was thrown into my life, right in the center of it all. It was as if the Norse God of wind Njord, stuck his head in my life and blew, scattering everything I needed to do away from me.
But the thing is, I’ve handled similar situations like this before; however, this time is different.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so challenged in my life like I am now, and I have no idea how I’m going to pull everything I want to do off.
Take this job for instance. I manage an office and do the bookkeeping, which involves a lot of accounting work.
I’m not complaining about it, I’m just saying there’s a lot of information getting thrown at me during the day. And when I get home my brain is too tired to do anything but worry if I’m retaining the information at work well enough to do the job on my own.
And then there’s that little annoying fear in the back of my brain that I might not be living up to their expectations, and omigod. . . . What if they fire me because of it?
That would be so humiliating, especially living in a small town where everybody knows your business.
Then there’s my book I’m planning on publishing soon. That takes a lot of work to do, which I don’t mind. In fact, I rather enjoy it. But I need to find time to do it, and finish writing my third book. I also need to revise and edit my second book because I want to publish it before the end of this year.
Oh, and another thing I want and need to do is to start going back to the gym. I used to go four times a week but stopped because truthfully, I rather stay home and write instead of working out.
That’s so bad, huh?
But I totally need to get my butt back in shape because on Saturday I went to South Dakota (that’s where our closest shopping center is at) to get some much needed clothes. . .
No, really. I do need clothes.
Anyway, I still wear the same size as before, but when I saw myself in the dressing room mirror, I didn’t like what the mirror reflected back at me. So I have to get back on a workout schedule before my backside grows a shelf where I can reach behind myself and grab a book.
Ya know what I’m saying?
So how in the hell am I going to be able to do everything I want and need to do? And why–oh–why all of a sudden, I’ve been dog piled with all this stuff I need to do?
Now we’re back to the confidence course analogy.
When I had expressed to Kevin, my above concerns, one of the things he told me during that conversation was this: What I’m going through right now is my own confidence course.
During our life, we all go through our own confidence course. If we succeed, we feel good about ourselves knowing we conquered whatever challenge(s) we went through. By doing so, we’re rewarded with a confidence we never had before. Just like the confidence course in the military.
The only way I’m going to get through this and succeed, is to change my thinking from: I’m so overwhelmed. How am I going to do all of this? This is too much. Why did I take on this challenging job? To: People in my community are counting on me, and now I’m up to bat to do my part for them. I can do this job, along with all the other things I need and want to do. I will succeed in this job, in my writing, and in getting my ass into shape.
I wrote this post because it’s part of my self-publishing journey. We all go through our own personal struggles, and it’s up to us to rise above it in order to accomplish our dream.
I don’t care who you are.
It’s the same for all of us because we’re all human.
So whether I make some extra money off of my books or make it big. I’ll still be the same person as I am now, but with a different confidence course to go through.
But it’s up to me to overcome my personal struggles.
Nobody is going to carry me through it. If they did, it would hinder my growth and enable the behavior of, I don’t want to do this, or I can’t do this so I’m not going to.
On that note, I’ll go and conquer this Monday, at my shiny new job, do the best I can, and work on my writing stuff later tonight. And then I’ll do the same thing the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day . . .
Well, you get the point.
Oh. Wait. I need to add the gym in there, along with household/life duties.
I knew I was forgetting something. :)
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