{"id":1483,"date":"2019-03-04T16:11:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T05:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2019-03-04T16:11:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T05:41:40","slug":"some-days-you-just-have-to-accept-that-you-are-flailing-around-like-an-idiot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/2019\/03\/04\/some-days-you-just-have-to-accept-that-you-are-flailing-around-like-an-idiot\/","title":{"rendered":"Some days you just have to accept that you are flailing around like an idiot"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

I spend my days writing and talking about wellbeing and productivity. That is my job.<\/p>\n

Today I had neither.<\/p>\n

I was in a crappy mood and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get any momentum going in relation to my writing. Other than this post, I probably only got 500 decent words written today (and at least 1000 terrible ones).<\/p>\n

A few years back, that combination would have left me feeling pretty dejected by the end of the day. Thoughts of being a failure or being useless would have stirred and I would have finished the day looking into the bottom of a large glass of wine.<\/p>\n

Now, admittedly, I might still go the glass of wine option (people in the Blue Zones do!<\/a>) but my mental attitude towards such days is quite a bit different now.<\/p>\n

In the old days, I’d turn the experience inwards – turn on myself and think myself into a funk. Ruminate on my flaws. Ponder on my weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Instead I am going to try to turn the experience outwards, that is, use the experience as subject matter for this blog.<\/p>\n

For example, when it became obvious that I wasn’t going to end the day on a productive note (I worked this out at about 3.25pm), I decided to write this post instead.<\/p>\n

Will this post be any good? Probably not. In fact I think it’s going to be a stinker. 200ish words in and I am already disappointed with it and want to hit the ‘move to trash’ button<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But it doesn’t matter, cause the power of this post won’t come from me distilling my experience down to 5 perfectly formed golden nuggets of advice that I pass onto you like a wise sage.<\/p>\n

The power of this post will come from you seeing me flail around like an idiot and then rocking back up again tomorrow to have another crack.<\/p>\n

You see, even though I am employed to write intelligently and elegantly about wellbeing and productivity, I have complete failure days. In fact, I have a lot of them. For example, I’ve been going around in circles on my Mental Fitness course for the last couple of weeks, with no real relief in sight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But deep down I am not worried.<\/p>\n

Cause I do things nowadays that I didn’t do before during times like this:<\/p>\n

1) I own it, without shame – that is the purpose of this post – openly acknowledging my piss poor writing efforts today.<\/p>\n

2) I return to work that I am struggling with regularly. I know that avoiding it will only make things worse, so I keep revisiting it until the way forward becomes clear to me. I’ll finish that Mental Fitness Course, just you watch!<\/p>\n

3) I remember that I am capable of doing good work. Yes my PhD now holds the spare room door open, but its actually not a bad read.<\/p>\n

4) I laugh about my monumental failures with colleagues as we walk around the lake at lunchtime. Strangely it seems to bring me closer to them.<\/p>\n

5) When I walk out the office at the end of the day, I’ll leave this day behind and do my best to start tomorrow with a fresh set of eyes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh shit – look at that – 5 perfectly formed golden nuggets of advice!<\/p>\n

Who da thunk it<\/p>\n

Take care<\/p>\n

Dr G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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