Hello from a new member

Hi All

So today's my first day on here. It's really wonderful to find such a resource and be able to share with likeminded. I do have a big project to be getting on with so I'm going to try not to linger too much on the forums.. there's so much to read and I do want to interact, learn, share and support others too - but that would stop me from doing what i need to do!

I haven't gotten to the bottom of my procrastination issue. But it is certainly a dominant factor in my life. Another thing has been indecision about what I want to do with my life. I'm sure the two are perhaps interlinked in some way that I haven't worked out. There's a lot I could say about my behaviour and my overly fearful response to certain opportunities that stop me in my tracks... but for now I'll just say hi! and say a little about why I'm here.

I have always been a creative person and dreamed of doing something linked to that as a job, I've had a lot of opportunities but have fled from a lot of them! I think as well as being very 'good' at procrastinating in relation to all kinds of general tasks, big and small.. in particular the creative thing has been a massive issue. I think there might be something tied into it in terms of 'exposing' myself or people thinking I'm 'not good enough' etc ... and this can bring up uncomfortable feelings which I seek to avoid by backing out of projects or delaying them - which as we all know can make things a lot worse!!

Right now I have been offered an opportunity to do an animation project - paid! - and it's quite a big one... I'm teaching myself how to use the computer software and it's all quite new to me so it's a big challenge - which can feel great and can feel absolutely terrible!! At time of writing I have a few days to really make progress on it. The parts that I have completed have been very much praised by the people I'm doing it for so I need to keep that in mind!! The past month I've been meaning to get on with it but I haven't and now the pressure is on, and I'm feeling very behind and worrying about it - but I'm trying to not get anxious about it as that it a bad cycle that I get myself into!!

I'm going to use the pomodoro technique today to get on with it.. I found that to be really effective when I came across it a couple of months ago. I imagine someone might have written about it in the forums somewhere and I'll look it up, or maybe I'll write about it if it hasn't been covered. It may be a bit gimmicky, but is a way of segmenting time and breaking a project down into time slots, and you just incrementally get on with it, 25 minutes at a time. I've got an application on my computer which counts down the 25mins and as you work through it, a sense of achievement does build.... but it's also easy to get distracted or not even start at all.. so it will take some discipline today!

I'm just going to pop to daily check ins and write what I need to achieve today.

Thanks for reading, hope it's not too rambly. Look forward to meeting others supporting others and hopefully receiving support too! As kind words go a long way, don't you think!?

Thanks,

Dotty