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Not In The Mood
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Mark Des Cotes, I can’t carry a tune if my life depended on it, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I have nothing to talk about.
Guess what? It’s hump day again. That means we’re half way through the week and before we know it will be over. I’m looking forward to that and to saying good riddance. It’s been a bad week for me so far. The weather has been terrible, with rain almost every day. I found out my dad has a mouse problem at his place that I need to take care of, and this morning I discovered that someone had broken into my truck some time over the last couple of days. Since I work from home there are days when I don’t drive the truck so it could have been any time since Sunday. Luckily all they took was a small change purse where I kept money for parking meters and the like. It only had about four dollars in it so it’s not a big loss. But it’s still disturbing. It must have been kids because they didn’t take the GPS and a portable stereo that were in plain view. Oh well, nothing I can do about it but put it behind me and carry on.
Today’s Fun Fact of the Day: Did you know that according to a study, Twitter and Facebook are harder to resist than tobacco and alcohol? I don’t drink or smoke but I can attest to the addictiveness of those two social media platforms. Do I need to find a 12 steps program?
Here’s What I leaned yesterday.
Have you ever had one of those days where you’re just not in the mood to do anything? That’s how I feel today. It’s 11:30 at night and I’m sitting in front of my keyboard trying to compose my SILY episode but I’m just not into it.
Let me describe my normal process. Usually some time over the weekend I kind of get an idea of what I might want to write about for my next SILY. I’ll let the idea stew around in my brain, fleshing it out and deciding if it’s worth pursing. Sometimes I realize the idea isn’t very good and drop it. Other times I keep massaging it until I end up with you hear on Wednesday.
Then there are times when Tuesday evening rolls around and I still haven’t figured out what my episode will be about. On those occasions I usually launch Evernote on my computer, which is a document and idea gathering application and look at the random topics and story ideas from my past that I keep in a Stuff I Learned Yesterday folder specifically for those occasions. I’ll pick one that tickles my fancy, write it up and then record it for you.
And then there’s today. Today I’m just not in the mood. It’s not that I don’t have ideas for stories. I have plenty. In fact I considered telling you the one I didn’t put out two weeks ago when I switched it instead for the story of what happened to me crossing the border back into Canada. Yesterday that’s the story I thought I’d share with you today, but as I said, I’m just not in the mood.
I don’t feel like being in front of the computer right now. I’d rather be watching TV or reading a book or something. Anything that doesn’t require me thinking to much. I feel like vegging. I that term still used or am I dating myself?
I don’t know if it’s because my job requires me to be creative on a regular basis? But some days I just need to turn it off and do nothing at all.
Back in episode 238 I talked about what happens when I get into a creative slump. I mentioned several tricks I use to rejuvenate my mind and get the creative juices flowing. Those are fine when I want to get back into it. But there are times, like today, when I’m just not in the mood.
I guess I’m lucky. Since I work at home, on the very rare occasions that I’m not in the mood to work, and let me stress that it is very rare that I feel this way, I can just tell myself, that’s it, I’m not working this morning, or this afternoon, or if its really bad I can say I’m not working today. I just take the time off and pick things back up the following day.
And I’ll be honest with you, if Darrell wasn’t counting on me, and if you weren’t expecting to hear my SILY episode on Wednesday, I wouldn’t be doing this right now. I’d be lounging back on the couch with my remote control in my hand.
Here’s what I learned.
It’s OK to feel this way. Everyone is entitled to days when you just throw your hands up in the air and say that’s it, I’m done, I’m not in the mood. I’ll do it tomorrow.
And most of the time, no harm will come of it. It’s ok to leave dirty dishes in the sink from time to time. It’s ok to look at the lawn and decide to let it grow another centimetre or two. It’s ok to say I’m not going to work on that client project today.
You can’t expect to be all gung ho each and every day. You’ll just exhaust yourself. And sometimes the weekend is just too far away.
I know the saying goes “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” and most days I agree with that. But, not always. There’s noting wrong with putting something off until tomorrow if you aren’t going to give it your all today.
I will tell you what’s not ok however, that’s breaking commitments. I’m not telling you to put off something important just because you’re not in the mood to do it. I’m not saying stay home from work or from school because you don’t feel like going. That’s just a good way to get in trouble.
I have the luxury of being my own boss, but I would never miss a deadline on a client job just because I didn’t feel like working on it. That would be business suicide.
Just like I would never not put out a SILY episode, no matter what mood I’m in, because I’m committed to it and I know you are expecting it.
You need to pick and choose what you can and what you can’t put off to later. Some things are just too important, like doing this podcast, even if I’m not in the mood to do it.
I’m Mark Des Cotes and this has been Stuff I Learned Yesterday.
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