Welcome to my blog. I am so glad you've found me! As I sit
down to write this I realize it is crazy I am just beginning to blog. My love
for writing began when I was in about 3rd or 4th grade.
In 4th grade I won a writing competition and KNEW I wanted to be a
writer. Throughout high school I kept a book of poetry and short stories I’d
written, which I still have. I've actually started two books. Yet here I am in
my 30’s just now starting my first blog. To continue the irony, I began this blog
without telling my husband. We recently had a heart to heart about me feeling
lost, he said I want to see you writing. Anything. Start a blog, write a book,
anything. Does the man know me or what? So here we go!
I thought it would be appropriate for this initial post to
tell you a little about me and my life. First and most important piece of
information about me is I have ADHD through osmosis. Yes, you read that
correct. Nearly every male born into my family has ADHD. My father,
grandfather, nephew, even my youngest little boy is showing mild signs. But
let’s talk about the two MOST important people … my two very competitive
brothers. No sister’s, no mild mannered brothers that just like to hang out.
No, I was blessed with two younger brothers whose minds literally run a million
miles an hour, are extremely athletic and always keeping me on my toes. I grew
up in a world immersed with people who go Mach 7 with their hair on fire and if
you want to play, you better keep up. I do not have ADHD, but I learned very early
how to keep pace with them. In our home do
not quit when you are tired, you quit when you are done, even if you are up
till 3 a.m. finishing that report, you push through. There is no quit in my
brothers (or my dad) so quitting anything for me feels like the world’s biggest
sin.
Therefore I’m the girl who goes all in with everything I do.
I always take on more and more because I believe I can do it all. But this
leaves me standing in the grocery store, with two mis-matched shoes, wondering
if I fed the fish and realizing I only shaved one arm pit because I got distracted
by the four other things I needed to get accomplished before I left the house.
Running late for a meeting, knowing I need to go faster, try harder, leaner,
meaner, gotta-eat-cleaner, fasterstrongerTOUGHER AND DON’T FORGET TO
Breathe….
As I was saying, when I take on a project I jump in head
first. Recently I decided to clean out our storage unit. In other words …
reorganize. I know the word makes my dad shutter with fear to this day.
REORGANIZING.. That was for you Dad… Because when it came time to clean my room
as I kid, I didn't want to just clean it, I wanted to REORGANIZE it! J Obviously it wasn't
organized properly to begin with because it got messy so I needed to rearrange
everything. My process for doing this was to take everything I own, put it one
giant pile in the center of my room so I could “reorganize” with the intention
this would only take a few hours. Usually two weeks later I would finally
finish my task. Sorry dad. My husband will tell you I am still the same way. So
when I decided, on a whim, it was time to clean out our storage unit, I should
have thought back to my childhood days of reorganizing. 8 SUV trips and one
giant truck load later it was cleaned out. The dilemma? The stuff was then
sitting in my living room in giant piles. We looked like we lived in an episode
of Hoarders. A week later I was finally pulling my house back together.
In the midst of the
chaos I began to feel so overwhelmed, wondering how I got in this situation. Then
it hit me. I started wondering why did I have to take this entire project on…
at once? There was no deadline, no urgency to get everything done immediately.
Most normal people would have picked up a box here and there, slowly gone
through things and avoided the complete chaos my life was for a week. But in my
world of faster, stronger, and never quitting until a project it done, I automatically
assume everything needs to be done NOW, at once.
It reminded me of an old saying I never understood “How do
you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I always thought was a ridiculous
statement. First, who eats elephants? Gross. And second, no one’s mouth is that
big to eat it at once. We all eat one bite at a time. But a few days ago as I
was reflecting on my habit of tackling huge projects like a linebacker tackling
a rookie it hit me. I just need to take things …
One bite at a time.
Welcome to my blog and my world.
