Day 82. I had 8 blog topics to choose from… so what happened?

365 Days of Living the Dale Carnegie Principles

 Day 82.  Wednesday, June 15, 2011
This day was jam packed with opportunities to use Dale Carnegie principles. I had so much blog material I made notes throughout the day so I wouldn’t forget. I even bragged to my friend at work that I can’t keep up with production—business is booming with too many blogs to write.  By the end of the day I had eight blog topics to choose from—a new world record.  (Usually I have at least two stories to choose from)

Surprisingly, as I sat to write earlier this evening I was struggling.  I wrote two drafts just for one of the blog topics and neither draft was any good.  Too much chatter and details—you’d fall asleep with what I wrote! 

How can I have eight fabulous topics and not be able to write them well? That’s when I realized the problem.  It’s that pesky principle from How to Stop Worrying and Start Living:
Rest before you get tired.

For once I was not worried about topics when I sat down to write.  Yet—my mind just couldn’t come up with anything coherent—despite having lived the day’s events. (it might have something to do with the fact that I was up until 3 am on Wednesday)

I have to keep reminding myself that rest is important—otherwise my efforts become futile.  This is not an easy task for me!  Even now as I type this I see it as a fake blog.  Yes, it’s 3:30 am.  But in my mind I can and should just dig my heels in deep and figure out how to write the best blog from the 8 topics I came up with.  Yet, I am also aware that I did try… and it didn’t work.   GRRRRRRR!

So remember, work actually does become easier with the proper amount of rest—both physical and mental rest.  Odds are I will struggle with this one for the entire duration of the blog….

I was discussing this challenge with a friend we will call the Tofu Fairy.  He said something very brave and very true about me.  I am stubborn.  Let’s hope that I can figure out how to harness my stubbornness in such a way that I do rest before I get tired and not feel like I have to apologize for it.