Beating ourselves up

This morning while getting ready for work, I was listening to Sunday Morning. They had a segment on E.L. Doctorow. The content was wonderful, but what caught my ear was Mr. Doctorow saying he was lucky if he wrote five hundred words a day. I literally stopped what I was doing to ponder that statement.



So many of us beat ourselves up because we don't accomplish everything on our to-do list. Those of us who are writers, well we know what we do.



This statement came on the heels of another idea that we need to slow down. We have the slow-food movement. People are talking about acquired attention deficit disorder. Yet so many of us think if we don't get this done today it will never get done.



I would say, it will not get done unless we allow ourselves to slow down, take a deep breath and stop beating ourselves over the head and shoulders for not being perfect. If Mr. Doctorow can write five hundred words a day and accomplish what he has in a lifetime (just stop to look at all the accolades that have come his way) then I believe we can also do quality work if we allow ourselves the time do to so.

There is nothing wrong with having a to do list, or goals. What is wrong is running our lives on overdrive to accomplish everything. I know there are those of you who would say I was guilty of doing the very thing I would say not do to. Yes, I have a number of interest and ideas that I pursue. What I do, however, to accomplish all I do is to allow myself time to think about what I want and then work a lot out in my head. When I feel it is time, I go ahead and jump in.
You see, many years ago I was given the gift of being told I could do anything I want. The next gift was the idea that if I just spent two hours, no more, on any project I would be able to complete so much more over a lifetime. That is my secret to doing all I do and still having time to sleep, read, and write along with living the rest of my life.

So let's slow down, give ourselves time and do quality work instead of quantity work. Enjoy the time we have and cherish it, love ourselves more and beat up on ourselves less. Now that is an idea whose time I know has come.