Musings from the underground...
| Labels: authenticity and labels, food for thought, love and relationships, psychology, written by Rio Denali | Posted On
Written a couple years ago...
By Rio Denali
Some of you may have noticed my recent absence. Let's just say that I was re-structuring my life.
I was an addict. Yes, it's true....I became addicted to Twitter and Blogspot. Had to detox.
I have been maintaining 9 websites and multiple Twitter accounts--plus freelancing articles on the side....and to my utter amazement, I began finding a quick measure of success. (Do I sound surprised?)
With each new mark of success came an added focus on my part, a driving need to improve my offerings and not disappoint readers. I found myself obsessing about articles, the websites, about adding fresh content daily, and I began checking website stats almost hourly analyzing the data for trends. It became a full-time obsession. And, if you think that was bad.....well, I won't even tell you about my Twitter habit... Twitter was my porn.
Most brilliant people are affected by a touch of craziness, certainly all creative people are. Think of Van Gogh's ear, your high school art teacher, or Einstein (have you seen his hair??) Craziness: It is the plague of creative minds.
For me, the crazies take the form of hyper-focused attention (otherwise known as obsession). I could be Monk's younger, blonder, less-Lebanese sister... Some may call it OCD, but I have always called it straight A's... thank you very much. [For those of you who don't know, Monk references an excellent, but unfortunately now canceled TV show on USA channel, starring Tony Shaloub.]
Perfectionism: my longtime arch enemy and often my greatest benefactor. I wanted to put out a great product for you, the reader..... but perfection in all areas is simply not realistic. Faced with finite resources, limited time to get things done and only so much energy: life is a balancing act. Using a disproportionate amount of resources in any one area, steals them from another. My cyber hyper-focus robbed other areas of my life, and it was time to make things right again. I have written on this topic before, see When is "Good" Enough? (The 80% Solution).
My kids were getting unruly, my husband needy, and my ass started expanding -- yep, I had to do something drastic. So, I quit cold-turkey. Stopped checking stats. Stopped everything. (Well ok, I did do a little Twittering....)
I started spending more time reading to my kids, snuggling with my husband on the couch, and cooking family dinners from scratch. I started baking again. Dinners became more leisurely; life more relaxed. I started spending more time at the gym and reading the dusty novels that were hibernating on my bookshelf. After about a month the difference was amazing. I became a new person, but more important were the differences in my marriage and with my kids. Our entire family was happier. And I was reminded that this is what life is about...
Now that my world is back in alignment you will be seeing my by-lines once again. But, probably not as often as before. As wise man once said, "Everything in moderation."
- Want to reprint this article?
- Please be our guest as long as you include this complete blurb with it:
- This article was originally featured on RioDancesOnTheSand.com, a blog for the thinking person... Written by Rio Denali, a 30-something with peculiar curiosities, who makes the observations that many of us avoid. Full of useful links and entertaining articles, it is a fun favorite for the intelligent reader. For more great articles like this, please visit RioDancesOnTheSand.com.
