I’m A Failure

I’m a failure.

Take a look at the picture below. What’s wrong? Weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. Ugly and unsightly weeds.

House Weeds 1

The weeds are taking over the flower bed. They are choking out the flowers.

I’ve failed to stay ahead of the weeds.

The same can be said for my writing.

You may have noticed my absence in publishing anything to the blog. In fact, it has been a month since I last posted something here. I can assure it wasn’t for lack of desire to interact with you, my readers. My desire to write over the last month has equaled my desire to take care of the weeds in the flower bed.

Every single day I’ve wanted to spend some time working on the writing.

Every single day I’ve wanted to pull a few weeds.

It hit me yesterday afternoon, as I was pouring with sweat pulling the weeds, that the weeds represented my writing. If I spend a few minutes every day on both, they will remain beautiful to look at and enjoy. Instead, I spent quite a few hours in the yard yesterday attempting to return it to something beautiful to look at.

It was great. It was fun. The weather was perfect for spending the day in the yard. But, it took the whole afternoon. I didn’t have time to do anything else, like writing, or reading, or relaxing in a chair enjoying the view.

Why do we do this to ourselves? We know better. We all know the benefits of spending a few minutes every day working on the yard, doing the laundry, washing the dishes, and multiple other tasks. Yet we let the dishes sit until the counter is no longer visible and we have to clean one bowl for our cereal in the morning.

So, I’m a failure.

But, I have time to change. I can become a success. My yard can look outstanding! I can write a few thousand words every week.

I don’t have to let my perfectionist tendencies keep me from starting. I believe the key for most of us is to work a little bit every single day.

House No Weeds 2 House No Weeds 1

Maybe next time I’ll tell you about the boulder you see sitting on the sidewalk. It needs to be moved. It’s heavy. It may or may not be a good representation of my book.

What do you need to weed?

 

 

11 thoughts on “I’m A Failure

  1. postaldriver

    I need to weed my life!!!! I’ve got weeds everywhere including the outside of my home.

    Just joined a mastermind group!! They’re some weeds gone!

    Worked on my blog and my site today. More weeds gone!

    Thanks for this post!

    Reply
  2. Scott Maderer

    Hey Rick. It’s true we all have weeds. But weeds don’t make you a failure. We always have the power of choice and sometimes the choice we need to make is to give some time to ourselves and space. Sounds like you know that. So make 2-3 small changes every day and keep moving forward, you’ll get there.

    Reply
  3. ethanfleck

    My actual and metaphorical yard is looking the same way. I am slowly learning to weed out what I can/like to in life and hire others to do the rest.

    Reply

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