Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Dogged

I just did 3/4 of my washing up, cleaned my bathroom sink and scrubbed the dimples on my shower floor with cream cleanser and an old toothbrush and put my shower curtain into the washing machine.

Pretty dull huh?

Actually when I started I felt very overwhelmed by the state of the house so I did a flylady and promised to do it just 15 mins at a time. 45 mins later the place is looking like less of a wreck. I read somewhere that action is better than hope. And certainly contemplating and hoping that my flat would get in order wasn't getting me anywhere and in fact hoping I'd do something about it 'tomorrow' wasn't doing me any good and in fact the mess was bringing me down.

So I just did it.

I didn't wait for the prefect moment to do housework.

I didn't wait to be inspired to do it.

I didn't go out and buy any special 'tools' to do it.

I didn't buy a manual.

I just did it.

Then I did it a bit more.

And surprised myself - after 15 mins more than half of the washing up was done. And when the timer went off while I was scrubbing the shower dimples I carried on to 'finish the job'.

I think that people don't want to know that a lot of creative work depends on doggedness. A stick with it ness. It is more important to keep putting ones foot forward and keeping going rather than relying on 'inspiration' or 'the perfect moment'.

For example when I made my first film my producer and I were turned down by the first choice of camera person I had in mind. It took us 6 months to find a replacement. Yes 6 months. For 6 months I would turn up at his flat and we phoned every contact we had and didn't have until we got a break. Imagine if I'd only put in a month of phoning and then had stopped? I would not have a film.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I set my timer to fifteen minutes a lot. It's a wonderful way of getting things done. I also read somewhere that fifteen minutes of housework uses up the calories equivalent to a digestive biscuit, which means I can have a guilt free dunk when I finish!

Michael
x

Anonymous said...

Hi Michael

if only I had some digestives handy! Will make a cake later I think!

m