I’m pathetic when it comes to judging timing on my embroidery projects. I am an Over-Optimist when it comes to time.
If I just crack down and do it – Really Concentrate on it – it won’t take long at all. I can have that done in a day.
I tell myself things like that all the time. I give myself the Most Amazing pep rallies. Go, Mary. You can do it!
That’s always at the beginning of the day.
By noon, I’m more like, Hey, Mary. Remember that project you were going to do today? When are you planning on starting that?
Around 3:00 pm, after maybe a half an hour of actual work, my inner voice points out the obvious: Whoa, Mary. If you worked on this til midnight you still wouldn’t be done.
And by 5:00 pm, I’m telling myself, Geez, Mary, this is taking forever. You should quit for the day and start fresh first thing in the morning. If you start early, you’ll be done in no time.
To which I generally respond, Wow, Mary, that’s a brilliant idea! Let’s go do something else!
When I was in college, being one of those very mature, self-aware people that I wasn’t, I wrote a poem on procrastination. It was pro procrastination. It began, Procrastinate, procrastinate, put off all the things you hate….
I’m every grateful that I can’t remember the rest. Otherwise, it would probably be my life-long mantra.
But that’s not the pathetic part. The pathetic part is that it doesn’t really bother me, except when I have to eat humble pie. When I have to admit that I didn’t get this thing or that thing done. When I have to face facts: I’m not as good at the whole “concentrated effort thing” as I think I am.
But I’m very good at distracting myself when I really should be concentrating all my efforts to finish what I planned to finish.
Case in point: The Hungarian Redwork Runner.
Oh yes, several of you asked about it this week. After all, Christmas is next week. And my goal was to have it finished by Christmas, right?
And wouldn’t you just love it if I could heroically show you the finished fruits of my concentrated effort to accomplish a goal that I enthusiastically set out to reach well over a month ago? Wouldn’t you just want to cheer with me, jump up and down in unbridled enthusiasm, clap your hands, and say, Yay, Mary, you did it!
Uh huh.
Well, guess what?
I haven’t done it. I don’t know if I will do it.
My inner cheerleader is trying to work up another pep rally, much to the chagrin of the practical, realistic side of me that knows, deep down, it just isn’t going to happen.
Or is it?
We’re having a battle right now.
Whatever the case may be, this is definitely going to happen:
I promised that we could make a hand embroidered ornament in the less-than-two-weeks until Christmas and have it hanging on the tree, or ready to give as a gift, by Christmas.
And I said it would be fun.
And it is fun! And that’s 99 percent of the problem.
The Hungarian Redwork Runner – as much as I know I will love the finished project – is … well. It is less than fun. It is the same stitch, over and over, hour after hour, in the same color.
Stitch after stitch after stitch after stitch…
My Inner Cheerleader tries to tell me I like that kind of embroidery. She tries to tell me it’s Relaxing.
It is relaxing. Every time I sit down to work on it, I relax myself into a state of blissful, sleepy stupor.
Geez, Mary, this is taking forever. You should quit for the day… Let’s go do something else.
Hey! Maybe we should start a Christmas ornament! Wouldn’t that be fun?
You see the problem?
But it’s early yet. The day is young. And if I concentrate today and through the weekend – and I mean, really, really, concentrate – maybe I can finish the ornament AND the runner?!
What do you reckon? Oh, let’s try!
C’mon, Mary, you can do it!
Oh golly. The cheerleader’s back.
Dang.
I’m outa here – I’ve got work to do! See ya Monday!
