Sat 9 Feb 2008
For everything you’d like to do, there’re reasons you’re not doing it. So what are your Some Day things, and what’s holding you back right now?
Posted by Josh Millard11 answers so far!
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Jesus. No, not literally Jesus; I’m pretty sure he’s on my side. Um, the establishment? I really would like a PhD, I really am smrt enough for one, I really have to have to bring a revolutionary new world order of media literacy to California-hence-the-world’s higher education pedagogy, and I maybe can’t get in to grad school? Argle barg. All else is a wonderful plan B. Plan B it is. Helloooo high schoolers, internet. Tomorrow, I will be able to see the drunkenness herein. Power to the people.
The Man is holding me down, of course. Also a fear of commitment and a love of procrastination, as well as a total dread of overextending myself and being miserable because I’m trying to do too much and have no time to hang out and paint and sew, which are the things that have precedence right now.
But mostly it’s The Man. Fight the power.
Lack of money.
Contentment, inertia, and a fundamental distaste for change. I think of it not as being held back but as embracing who I am and making the choices that are best for me for the present and foreseeable future. You can’t have everything, so you pick what counts most and let the rest go.
I’m with Fellini- comfort holds me back. I’m comfortable. Maybe I could change for the better- but what if it’s for the worse? Things are fine right now, so I shouldn’t go running off in every direction chasing all the what ifs.
Alternative answer: someday I would like to shave off all my hair and get a crazy head tattoo. I am held back by the fact that I have a job where being female and hairless (or head tattooed) would be not considered appropriate, and by the fact that head tattoos are probably expensive.
Oh, and someday I would like to eat some Kobe beef, but I’m not sure if I would enjoy it in proper proportion to the cost.
Lack ‘o money for me too.
Holding me back: My family. I have to support my mother & my two siblings, and deal with all of the concomitant bullshit that goes along with living in a family 1 generation out of the trailer park. I am constantly “help[ing] [whoever] out.” But really it’s just that I am too lazy to make the fistfuls of cash that I could be. I could support them and myself (as I want to be) if I really had to, if I really pushed myself.
Someday Things: Move out of America. Make enough money so I don’t have to go to work every day. Write some music that I might actually enjoy listening to. Write some stories that I might actually enjoy reading. I don’t know if people who create things generally like what they make, so maybe I will never get to do those last two things.
Woops, I accidentally guested that comment instead of logging in…
Right now I have a bad case of cabin fever. It’s seriously wigging me out to the point that I was looking up the price of airfare to Florida last night.
Overall, nothing is holding me back except my bad attitude. Someday would like a bigger place, which we’re working on. Rent is pretty high around here and part of our fundage goes to renting my husband’s office, so a place that could combine the two in a good location is the ultimate goal. Moving away from Maine is not feasible due to his relatives living in the state.
So I have to get off my butt and get some more gigs to get what I want. He’s pretty easygoing and agreeable, as well as a hard worker so it’s not him that’s holding me back.
Off to adjust my attitude…
Procrastination. That is my everyday holdup. I overschedule myself ridiculously, either out of insecurity or over-confidence or a combination of both. Then, faced with a mountain of work/commissions I have committed to, I fart around online or pet the cat. My long-term holdup is similiar in the sense that I am so overscheduled that even contemplating a slight shift in my career is completely impossible.
I have big someday things. But they are big. They require enormous time commitments. How can I begin to contemplate them when my day-to-day is already so full?