Sometimes you need a win
There are times when things just don’t go that well for long stretches of time. When that gets me down, I tell myself “I just need a win”. It’s a way of reminding myself that if I can change one thing about my situation, then the sky is the limit. It’s also a bit of a wake-up call for myself. When I find myself muttering, “I just need a win, just anything, anything!” I know that my frustration level has peaked.
Well, I’ve needed a win for a while. And I just got a couple. They’re small, but real.
I spent much of last night trying to diagnose people’s computer problems on JustAnswer.com; I recently signed up as a paid Expert. The signup process has been a bit of a chore and after hours of trying to answer questions, I came up empty.
Win: I woke up this morning and one of my Answers was accepted. I’m now a couple dollars richer. And he even left a little bonus for me. I now have a rating of “1” on JustAnswer instead of a rating of “0”.
I’ve been throwing my heart into making a web site and video for the T. Pen. I realize I have no graphic design skills… web page layout, color schemes and such. I’ve stared for hours (embarrassingly, literally hours) at blank sheets of paper and blank screens trying to drum something up. And the video I’ve been working on has taken waaay too long to make.
Win: Last night, I did the video. This morning I’m putting some finishing touches on it and it looks pretty good. I got to exercise my video production and editing skills and my endurance for pushing though technical problems (For instance, did you know that while you can record a 30 minute video on a Canon Powershot SD1000 Elph, there is no way to get the resulting 1.3 gigabyte video onto your computer? Just reshoot it. And WTF is up with Adobe Premiere dropping partial audio during WMV renders?).
I’m going to take these wins and run with them.
Today’s todo list:
- buy the last of the xmas presents
- talk with the logistics guy about SWARM going to Techkriti in India (!!)
- Call the tutoring company about my part time tutoring gig
- Answer some more JustAnswer.com questions
- Get my car looked at so I can take it on a Christmas Roadtrip
- Borrow the website design Mark suggested for the T. Pen site
- Make bread and bring it to the housewarming party for a friend
Ok, I won’t get through the whole list today. But I’m on a roll, I can feel it.