Strouty,
This is one of my favorite threads on GJ. I don't get over here often enough.
One thing I notice, and I share this propensity, is that you are going in lots of different directions all the time. Part of that, is you are interested in lots of things. Me too.
Another is that you like to help people. Me too.
But when your own house is out of order, you owe it to yourself, AND everyone else, to just say NO! In fact, NO should be the standard answer unless there is an extreme reason for it not to be.
It's not selfish. It's reasonable.
When I was VP of my neighborhood group, and helping people out left and right, without them even asking, I was neglecting myself.
I used to clean all the tree dreck out of the street gutters for the whole block up the street from me. No one did their own or even thanked me. This spring one neighbor asked when I was going to do it in front of their house.......like it was expected.
I realized too, that no one would do any such thing for me.
There is enough of my own to do.
So I cleared the decks, quit my post, quit going to the meetings and quit helping neighbors unless it was a barter situation for something I needed.
The world didn't end. People still wave at me.
I still haven't dealt with the problem of being interested in too many things. I am getting better at dealing with priorities first, but that is a struggle. It is so easy to sidetrack myself. More fun to eat my desert before my vegetables.
Bill
