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- 03 Mar
Camera, lights, action ………
It is March already! How on earth did that happen so fast. A little scary, as the year seems to be flying by. I am getting on with my 50 at 50 though and enjoying life!
The highlight of the week, and my number 7, was going on a photo shoot with a national magazine. I can’t say which one yet until the piece comes out but what I can say is what a great time I had. The full works of hair, make up and wardrobe followed by a photo session. The team were all amazing and such lovely people – and very patient with me! As I kept rejecting all the garments offered to me to wear that patience was stretched quite thin I am sure. There were rails of different options but on a theme of things I don’t normally wear – awkward! I was hoping to convince them jeans and a nice linen shirt would do the job well, when a lovely cream dress was produced from the depths and we settled on that.
The article comes out in May for the June edition so I will let you know when it hits the shelves! I have never done anything like that before. It was great fun and a lovely day so is definitely on my list of 50!
I finished my swimming fitness challenge at the end of February. Where I would normally do about 70 to a maximum of a 100 lengths in a week, I stuck with my personal challenge of 50 in each session and got to 200 lengths each week. I feel better for it too, so am going forward into the year with my increased fitness level.
My number 6 was to learn something new for work and keep my professional development going. So this week I completed my certification in the EQi2 and EQ360, Emotional Intelligence Report. A great tool for understanding how we perceive and express ourselves, cope with challenges and how we inter-relate with others. Fantastic for personal and leadership development.
In my drawing class we moved on to using oil pastels and created an artichoke and then an apple.
I went to the class straight from a meeting where I had been going over some financials and business plans and even though I stepped in through the door looking forward to doing something different for a few hours, as we started on the artichoke, I found myself feeling quite frustrated at my effort. The way we were doing it just didn’t make sense to me and I noticed that old feeling I used to get when I was in school that made me just want to throw my books across the room! (and yes I remember actually doing that at least a few times back then!). I haven’t felt like that for such a long time that it was quite a surprise to me. So I asked myself ‘what is this about’ and I realized I was still wrapped up in my logical brain and needing to get it right and hadn’t actually fully let go.
I was trying too hard. And in trying too hard it just wasn’t working. So I let go of the need for logically understanding how to do and for me to have to get it right and just relaxed. In the letting go I was so much more creative than when I was logically trying to figure out what to do. Letting go of frustration rather than getting locked in the energy of it, is something I will be mindful of going forward.
Sometimes when we try so hard, we end up with the opposite of what we want.
Worth considering times when you aren’t getting the results you want maybe – are you trying too hard?
