Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Have You Been Unfaithful? I’m not talking Ashley Madison unfaithful.


Yesterday, I realized I’ve been cheating….on myself. I was doing for others what I wasn’t doing for me (at the drop of a hat I might add).  

If you posted on FB that you were searching for a catchy phrase of 2-5 words that would encompass (fill in the blank), I would spend hours trying to come up with it for you. Which I guess you could say sounds noble and nice, but if I’m not doing my own stuff with the same vigor, I not being noble or nice. I’m cheating on myself.

Another insidious method I found to cheat on myself is continuous learning. My inbox was overflowing with all the webinars, blogs, and emails of people’s work I follow. Even though I had recently done a massive unsubscribe purge, I was saving up a lot of content to devour later. Now, I see the writing on the wall. I am spending my time learning and learning and learning and not DOING!

The first of the year I told myself “I will make blogging regularly a priority.” Has that happened? NO! I’ve read a lot of blogs. I added to my knowledge base. I’m learning a lot, but am I DOING, NO!!!

Yesterday, I realized I wanted all this to change. I wanted to be faithful to myself, so I put myself on a “Learning Fast.” I’m not allowed to go searching for or learn anything new until further notice. AND I’m not allowed to DO for other people what I’m not DOING for myself. This actually makes so much sense!

Lest you think I’ve gone completely bonkers, if in the process of DOING, I need to learn something to achieve what I’m DOING, I can. But I’m not allowed to learn just to learn. That ship has sailed. I truly do know a lot and I need to start applying it. Does that sound familiar?

Mary Anne Radmacher’s talking dog Webster posted a video yesterday on Facebook asking “What are you waiting for?” That smart Rat Terrier spoke directly to my heart bringing on a “come to Jesus” moment.

The seventh commandment “Thou shall not commit adultery” has taken on a new meaning for me. Adultery is when I DO someone else’s stuff instead of DOING my own stuff. That’s kinda what it meant in the bible, too, right?

So I did it. No more unfaithful acts for me. I cleared out my inbox of all those blogs, webinars and links to conference calls. Yep, I hit “delete” and it felt good. I didn’t look back.

Today, feels different. I’m on high alert staying vigilant and focused, but it’s so much easier than I thought it would be.

Are there things that you could do or not do to be more true to who you are? I highly recommend it!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Caren I love this post Kathy and I have just been talking about this. We said why do we keep signing up for classes We got this and we keep learning the same thing just delivered in a different style or venue. Time to share what we know. I haven't quite finished mt subscription purge but I have been doing a slow purge but after reading your article I can just go dump. The light bulb went off They will always be there if we want a refresher later.
NO MORE CHEATING
Anita

Caren/Caren4u said...

Thanks Anita! Yes, I came to the same conclusion. They WILL all be there if I want a refresher later. Glad this spoke to you. Smiles, Caren