Pearls of Wisdom and Foolish Mutterings

One time.... at band camp.....

More and more lately, I find myself typing a few opening lines of a blog entry and then deleting it all. It's frustrating - all those false starts. But it does seem to be in keeping with my general mood lately. I've been feeling very restless for a while now and I can't put my finger on the reason. I think those false starts in my blog entries are indicative of the way I've approached life recently.

Maybe it's not such a bad thing, that tendency to second-guess myself. I've always lived very impulsively, rushing headlong into something - anything - before giving it a lot of thought. I can't say that hasn't worked for me; for the most part it has. Not always, of course, but that's to be expected no matter what your philosophy is. Whether you adhere to the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race train of thought or you're more of the act now--think later persuasion, you'll have both successes and failures.

I still lean more toward impulsiveness and I'm sure I always will. That's just how I'm made. But, whether it's from experience or just a cautiousness that seems to come with age, I seem to be tempering the impulsiveness with a bit more forethought, of late. I don't think I'm in any danger of ever being accused of over-thinking things. I still function best as a spontaneous being. Given too much time to think things through usually results in my abandonment of the original idea and then I'm on to something else entirely. I've always known this about myself: if I plan something too far in the future, I will find a reason not to do it. I don't know why, but that's almost always the case. Give me a couple of days notice, or even better - a couple of hours, and we're golden. Whatever it is will go off as planned, without a hitch.

I work better under time constraints, too. Deadlines are my friend (as long as they aren't too far in the future!) I'm a terrible procrastinator. Without some kind of pressure, I adhere firmly to the twisted proverb of never accomplish today what you can put off until tomorrow. Which is probably why I'm also very flexible (not flexible as in bendy - that's another blog, for another day.) It's an absolute necessity to be flexible if you're a world-class procrastinator. I can say that with absolute confidence because I've honed it to a fine art.

What is this? Some kind of confession blog? Sheesh! Enough with the examination of my weaknesses. Let's move on to my strengths. My biggest strength is, and always has been, that I'm an encourager and a motivator. I've had lots of practice - with my brother, all four of my kids, my sons-in-law. I think it's a built-in component with mothers. You can't be a mother without being an encourager. I'm pretty sure God just designed it that way.

The hardest part about being a motivator or an encourager is not allowing yourself to get caught in the trap of rescuing. There's a huge difference between encouraging and rescuing. I don't know if all motivators have that tendency, but I know I do. For years and years, I was the go-to person for anyone who had a problem. Not only would I encourage you, but I would break my neck trying to fix your problem for you. Which, of course, totally negates anything I might have done for you in the encouragement department. I'm still trying to break that nasty habit of taking over and rescuing instead of teaching and encouraging.

Well, as most of you know, I could talk all day about myself (and usually do!) but I need to go do some actual work - bleeeccchhh!!! Don't worry though. If I think of anything else you need to know about me, I'll rush back here tonight and write more. I know you'll all be waiting with bated breath.