It’s 2014…HAPPY NEW YEAR! So what did you learn in 2013? This past year has been interesting and it marks one year since I last blogged. I didn’t just walk away from the blog…I must have started about 20+ posts but I didn’t complete one. I thought about the blog constantly (I had some good stuff too!) but something always stopped me and by something, I mean life and by life…I mean ME! From January through August, everything that could go wrong did and I decided to have my own personal pity party/adult tantrum, you name it and I took it out on the blog, which of course, effected no one but me.
In August, having hit the proverbial bottom, I decided to make a change and really go for what I wanted. For far too long, I have been the person who dreamed big but talked myself out of my blessings. I was great at cheering everyone else on to success but for some reason, I wouldn’t let it happen to me. It’s been 2 1/2 years since I was fired and as I’ve written before, I always knew that I wasn’t going back into banking but the question was, “What was I going to do?” I started blogging because writing had been on my mind for a while but as I began to write, I realized that for me, I was going to need to do more than just blog to have my career go the direction I wanted it to go so I began taking a course to become certified as a Life and Business Coach and it was in one of my classes that I learned what my biggest issue is and why I have been stagnate for so long.
I’ve always been a HUGE procrastinator but as long as I worked for someone else, I was able to keep it in check. It wasn’t until I decided to go out on my own that I realized if I didn’t get a hold of this disease (Yes, I’m calling it a disease!), I would be paralyzed for the rest of my life never having fully accomplished what God put me on this earth to accomplish. So I confronted my issue head on and for the first time, spoke it in to existence outside of my head and what I learned was this:
1. My procrastination hid the real problem…I was an undercover perfectionist. If it wasn’t what I felt was “perfect”, I wouldn’t release or complete the project thus holding myself back.
2. I thought I did my best work when I was under the gun but I did my best work when I did the damn work! (I learned that from a recovering perfectionist!)
3. Procrastinating was nothing more than my own personal drama being carried out in my head.
4. Talking to others about my procrastination brought a sense of relief I didn’t even know I needed.
5. If I planned to be successful on my own, I was going to have to find a way to overcome my procrastinating ways. This has led me to begin writing things down in advance and making myself follow through on my commitments whether they are perfect or not.
So going forward, I now consider myself a recovering procrastinator/perfectionist! Everyone knows the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem and I am boldly coming forward and admitting my struggle. Being accountable to myself is going to be tough but it is the only way I will be able to move forward and accomplish the goals that I have for both myself and my new business. So CHEERS to all of the recovering procrastinators with perfectionist tendencies! Let’s make 2014 the year of RECOVERY and PROSPERITY!
(Photo credit: deeplifequotes)
Starting over is hard to do but it could be the beginning to a whole new you! I know…it sounds corny, but why don’t we embrace starting over? I guess it’s because starting over represents change and change is sometimes scary but what if change meant you were about to embark on finding a better you? We all talk a good game about wanting to “Find ourselves” but when the time comes for the hard work to begin, we balk and sometimes run from the very thing we claimed we wanted.
I am no longer running. For years, I have talked about wanting to write and I always managed to talk myself out of it by using my favorite excuse of–“I’m too tired because I’m always working”. This was a true statement, I was ALWAYS working but really, I was ALWAYS procrastinating! In a previous post, I talked about my propensity to procrastinate and how it has affected me my entire life but what wasn’t discussed was why I was procrastinating. If I did what I claimed I wanted to do, which was write, I would have to first believe in myself and more than anything, that is what I was lacking.
I knew I had the talent to write but because I didn’t believe in myself, I blocked my own blessing and it took the Lord to step in and save me from me. It’s crazy that I had to get fired in order for me to realize what I was supposed to be doing and it’s even more crazy that even after I got fired, I still procrastinated by saying that I had to have A, B and C in place for it to be right. A, B and C never fell into place.
What did fall into place was my being faced with running out of money. Now I know that starting a blog wasn’t going to lead to immediate riches but in order for me to become the writer I wanted to be, I knew that blogging was the medium I was supposed to use to begin my career as a writer, so it is funny that even knowing this, I still put it off. I didn’t fully believe in me.
I remember the first promotion I received which wasn’t expected. I had been working hard but only because I was a hard worker and while my ultimate goal was always advancement, I wasn’t, by any means, looking to advance having been in the job as an assistant manager for two years. There had been some rumblings that there was going to be movement in the office and all indicators pointed to me being moved to an office that was further away. When the news was delivered that I was not the employee who would be moving and that I was also being given the manager position, I was shocked to say the least. When I got in my car and processed what I had just been told, I said out loud–“Well…I didn’t see that coming!” When God decides you are ready to transition to your next calling whether you see it coming or not, it is going to happen and if God believes in you why don’t you believe in you?
I am finally ready to believe in me. No matter what is thrown in my direction to deter me from my calling I am going to stay focused and apply the same skills that earned me my surprise promotion. While it is scary to be starting over, I am excited about what starting over means and I look forward to the new challenges I am about to face because I know that where I am today is in God’s plan and there is no arguing with that!
We’ve all had that moment when we realize that our life has plateaued. That moment when you start to notice that no matter what you do, nothing happens. Whether it is career, financial, love or a physical transformation, your life just seems to be at a complete standstill…I am having that moment. My standstill is career related which has lead to being financially stifled and feeling extremely discouraged.
After being unceremoniously fired from a company where I had worked for 10 years, I decided to take some time to figure out what I wanted to do next. The summer of 2011 was the best I’d had since I was a kid. The family was able to take a well deserved trip to Puerto Rico and we were able to really spend quality time with each other. As time wore on, I seriously began to look for a job but I noticed that despite my qualifications, nothing I tried was working and I felt more and more like an undesirable candidate…for EVERYTHING!
I had always told myself that I wouldn’t go back into banking, which was the field I’d been working in for 13 years, but as I applied for positions outside of banking that made as much as $20,000.00 less than what I’d been making, I was getting nowhere. This went on for sometime. I finally buckled down and tried to get back into the field of banking, (I guess that is why they say never say never!) but it didn’t matter that I had given in and was trying to go back to something I said I’d never go back to…they didn’t want me! O.k…now what?
I should tell you that the entire time that I was trying to figure out what my new career should be, I was constantly hearing in my head that I needed to write. I had been saying for over 5 years that that is what I wanted to do but I always managed to have too much going on to concentrate on writing…at least that is what I told myself. Then, of course, I lost my job and had all the time in the world and again I told myself, “I didn’t have enough money to create my website the way I wanted.” So I kept looking for jobs that had nothing to do with the career where I claimed I wanted to work.
Finally, I found a job working in the insurance field. I had to jump through several hoops to show this employer that I was “worthy” of being “conditionally hired” by them and I did everything they wanted me to do. At first I was excited because I was FINALLY going to be working but as I started taking classes to learn how to sell their brand, the realization set in that I wouldn’t be able to give my all to yet another company. I had spent the last 10 years giving everything to a company that had no problem dropping me by the wayside and I no longer had the wherewithal to play the corporate slave game. “Now really…what the hell was I going to do?” This is the question I began to ask myself.
I made my daughter start writing a blog this summer so that she could improve her writing skills. I had told myself that that wouldn’t work for what I wanted to do (again with the procrastination) and I discouraged myself from what I said I wanted to be doing. My best friend, who was one of a few people who knew that I wanted to write, told me how to create my site the way I wanted for free…THANK GOD! No longer able to procrastinate, I set up my site and immediately started writing and something happened…the words just flowed…I was finally doing what I said I’d wanted to do!
It has taken me 5 years to overcome my issues with procrastination and self-doubt. The Lord knew I had to lose my job and be forced into the possibility of being unhappy working for another 10 years in order to make me realize my real calling. I am working to get past feeling stifled in my career and I now know that by following through with the plan I set up in my head 5 years ago, the financial rut I am in will also pass. It feels good to know that I am at a point in my life where I realize I can no longer just go with the flow…I sure wish I’d gotten to that point sooner but at least I finally did!
Momma Used to Say 