Pushing through… with style (or something)
You may have noticed a slight hiccup in my weekly article writing, or maybe not — life is busy, and no one is waiting with bated breath for the next piece of content. I’ll face up, I haven’t written a new article in two weeks. I have many really good excuses, of course, and I even buy into most of them, but at the end of the day they are just good excuses for not making the time to do what I set out to do for myself. I therefore give myself a virtual slap on the wrist, and today have decided to move on with this instead of dwelling on my now imperfect record of weekly article writing. It came to me like this — sometimes you just need to push through. I always chuckle at the term ‘push through’ as it reminds me of a story my husband always tells of a road trip he went on with a bunch of his farming mates, who pushed through an eight hour road trip in order to get to the border post early and ended up sleeping in the car and contracting malaria. I won’t go into any more detail, but needless to say, each time they stopped on their journey, one of the guys would rally ‘naaah, lets push through’ in a thick South African accent. I fear there was limited style involved in this version of pushing through, however, the mantra of pushing through holds true value — sometimes, you just need to drop your chin, do the work and move forward, like a thick-skulled bull.
I’ve noted a few things in life where pushing through is inevitable and some ideas on how to do it with a certain flair, that makes it more bearable and manageable.
Taxes
It’s not so much paying my taxes that bothers me — sure I could think of a million better things to do with that hard earned money — it’s the gawd awful administrative burden of the whole hideous process. The tracking of vehicle logbooks, the digging (electronically) for various forms, the back and forth emails with my bookkeeper. It’s all just littered with stuff that I will probably bugger up and then have to pay more money for. It gives me the willies, and I don’t like it at all. BUT one has to push through and do it, or you will go to jail. Adding style to taxes, is hard, because I just want to swear like a filthy sailor. Some suggestions, albeit annoyingly clever are; monthly car logs versus annual panic write ups, having a fabulous bookkeeper, storing your tax certificates in one folder so you know where they are, donating to a good cause so that you can claim the tax back at the end of the year (and it feels good too).
Writing
Writing is like a love affair. You cannot get enough in the beginning phases. You just want to be in your head, writing, writing, writing, all the time. Working the story, falling deeply in love and lust with your characters. You can’t get them and their problems out your mind, they consume you completely. And then…one day you sit down and well, you’re just not that enamoured with your story anymore, or to mention it, even your characters. What has happened? Have you become bored by them? Are they annoying you in some way, just a little bit. When that day comes, as it inevitably does, one must push through. Like any worthwhile relationship, it’s important to push through the petty, small stuff in order to move the relationship to the next level. Today was the day I had to push through my article writing blip, and here we are, coming out the other side with something to show for it!
Work
I have a number of different clients and I actually like working with all of them, but sometimes they give me boring jobs. Such is life, it can’t all be glitz and glamour and the fabulous stuff. I often sit on those jobs for as long as possible, waiting for the panic regarding the deadline to kick in so that I can quickly solve and deliver — relying on the adrenalin rush of fear-of-not-meeting-the-deadline to spur me on. This sadly often leads to sub-par execution, with the small details missed. It’s a poor effort on my part. One can do this better — by pushing through, when the job lands, and working on it immediately, I can avoid the wide-eyed adrenalin rush and poor execution. I now ask for a reasonable deadline, one that gives me time, but not too much and then I know I have to stick to it. I also triple check ‘boring’ jobs. My eyes tend to wash over those kinds of jobs, seeing none of the issues I would normally.
Parenting
Sticking to threats and rules as a parent is harder than it seems. Often, it’s easier to ‘let it slide’, bend your own rule and ‘forget’ to implement the consequences. We have just instituted a new law at Casa Lewis that states that one must make one’s bed and clean one’s room before you can have access to your device. The skillful daughter child managed to pull the wool over my eyes on DAY 1! Day 1, seriously!! Her brother raised an objection, diligent and law-abiding child (even though I figured out he is watching Disney+ on the sly). Trying to manage and deliver on all the laws we create is an enormous pain in my ass. In fact, the husband is very good at creating laws, which I am then required to implement. Stupidly, I often agree conceptually, then realise I’ve just given myself more work. However, as I stated in my previous article on parenting, it’s worth pushing through in order to truly parent. Kids are lazy, and guess what so are we, but as the adult, I need to push through and deliver on my parenting promise. With style? Remains to be seen 😊
Pony searching
After riding for over a year, my daughter asked to take her riding to the next level. I thought this would just mean an extra class on the riding-school pony, or something along those lines. Boy was I wrong! It actually required more classes, a whole pony and a lot of my time and money. Being a sucker for ponies and horses, I capitulated and went on a lengthy journey to find a pony lease (purchasing a whole pony would have ended my marriage and left me homeless and penniless). We tried a few different ponies, which were unsuitable, and even a horse, which bucked her off. It was a special time and needless to say, I expanded my swear word repertoire, learnt a few new horse words and was about to give up, when a darling child at our yard saw my plight and suggested my daughter lease her pony. I couldn’t believe it and as I slowly pushed forward in the process, despite being ready to give up, the whole time due to a multitude of issues. However, I did push through, I asked, and the universe (yes, I said it, the universe) delivered — more than I could have even hoped for. This whole process has flipped from horror expedition to joyous pony love and fun. We lease from the kindest and most generous people, and I still can’t actually believe it.
It therefore seems rather evident that pushing through, truly does work. I in fact love the following statement: When you feel like giving up, give more (borrowed from Yael Geffen). If you can, and you really, really want it, give just a little bit more, and wait. Step back, let it unfold. If it doesn’t and you have given your all, it isn’t meant to be. However, if it flickers and sparkles start to form, well, you guessed it… your pushed through to the other side and, with style!
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