My husband commented yesterday how odd it was that sometimes procrastinating about one task creates a log jam in our lives. As I thought about it, I realized he's right.
And when we're feeling out of balance, we tend to experience more of those log jams.
In his case, it was a task that seemed too big. He broke it down into something more manageable--and it was STILL too big. He broke it down again, and found something he could work with.
I eliminated one tiny job yesterday--a phone call telling a customer a special order was going to take a bit longer than I'd estimated. My log jams tend to always involve a hard phone call.
A friend once said that's why she respected me so much. She said I was one of the few people she knew who was always willing to make the "hard phone call." She's right, I am. She just has no idea how long it sometimes takes for me to get to that point.
I hadn't realized how much I was dreading the call until they reassured me they hadn't even given the customer my deadline. And they were delighted I'd simply let them know. What a relief!
Why had I dreaded calling them? And why had I held up other similar calls until then?
I realized in this case, it was fear I'd let them down, and that I'd be criticized.
Times have been hard for craftspeople and artists lately, and times have been hard for fine craft stores, too. Probably LOTS of stores.... When times are hard, we tend to get anxious for our livelihood. Anxiety leads to striking out, and assigning blame for our difficulties, unless we think things through. There seems to be a lot of anxiety in the air lately.
When I call a store to follow up on something, I don't want to be blamed for all their anxiety, just my small contribution. So I put off making the call.
Then I realized that NOT calling would be worse. Simply recognizing this helped me make that call.
This one had a happy ending. The store assured me they didn't think the extra time I needed was extravagant. In fact, they hadn't even told the customer my original estimate, so all is well. And they were delighted when I told them I always include a special freebie when I feel an order has taken too long to fill.
I was fortunate this time. Sometimes there isn't a happy ending to making that hard phone call. But it still feels better than the log jam.
