Finding motivation

Often a person comes to a point where they just have to wonder, do I really need this much stress in my life. Which is normally accompanied with the feeling that a lot is getting done but none of the tasks are being done very well.

Life for me lately has included managing a new home, helping our children and grandchild, making sure that my mother has what she needs, starting my own company and going to college fulltime. Alone each one of these tasks have the possibility of making a perfectly sane woman loose her mind but when combined can overly challenge even the most organized female.

I must admit I am one of those women who began to question what the heck I was doing and how I could possible get all of this work completed. The sheer magnitude of what I needed to do was becoming overwhelming and I wondered if I shouldn’t just turn on the TV and watch the HGTV channel all day, it would be a make for a much simpler and uncomplicated life.

Unfortunately this new mental state began to reveal a chink in my otherwise solid armor of perseverance and persistence.

The breech showed in my lapse in accomplishing tasks focused around my college coursework. I received a paper back from a very professional and caring professor that noted my uncharacteristically lack of writing talent all the while I was struggling with completing other assignments for several other courses.

What would it take to snap my out of my doldrums and bring back the spark of initiative that propelled me to be the best?

The United States Postal Service to the rescue…

Today I received a priority mail box, thinking the package was for my husband I began to sit it on the table for him to open later when I noticed that it had my name penned in the address label. The slightly battered box was from VCSU bookstore.

Slicing open the box I thought what could this be? Then I noticed the neatly wrapped package and saw a graduation ensemble that consisted of an ebony cap, gown and tassel with the number “10” in gold.

Tearing open the plastic packaging I grasped the silken gown and held it up at arms length; it looked to be a perfect size. Next out of the box was the black cap, pretty generic as far as graduation caps go but inside you could see the word “congratulations”. Finally I took out the tassel. It was a jumbled mess of black strings that needed to be straighten out, but when hand combed with the fingers turned into a talisman which now hangs on my computer to protect me with against the lack of motivation demon that recently plagued my home. Finally I found my inspiration to help me back on the road of initiative and success.

My newfound inspiration brought forth from my memory the saying “you have to think outside of the box.” I reflected for some time on the old adage and found that there is something missing from this guiding verse. So I offer the following revision

“You need to look inside the box in order to think outside of it”