Dear Friends, Family and Fans,
I like doing what I like to do.
This statement seems simplistic at best.
Don’t we all like doing what we like to do?
The problem, for most of us is that we don’t spend most of our time doing it. Much of our time is spent avoiding what we don’t like, procrastinating, and then painfully doing it anyway. Is it better to beg, barter, or pay for the freedom of doing more of what you like? My answer is “maybe.”
One of my responsibilities as an elementary student was to iron my blouses for school. Blouses were cotton. Cotton was very different back in the day. Not a blend. Not wash and wear. Rough dried. Wrinkles on top of wrinkles. I’d have to sprinkle water, roll them up, and then carefully press with a super-hot iron. Maybe spray starch, as well. This was one of my least favorite things to do, but girls and boys needed white shirts for assembly every Friday. This particular week, all four of my white blouses were washed and rough dried. School assembly was the next day. What’s a girl to do?
I received a dollar allowance every week for much of my growing up. A dollar, in my world, was worth 200 pieces of a variety of candies, and gum; ten Ring Dings; or one movie. Or a dollar could pay for what I didn’t want to do. My idea was clear. Ask my aunt to complete the task I dreaded, for a fee, in order for me to have more time to do what I enjoyed. As far as I was concerned, paying her my allowance freed me to do something I liked to do: rollerskate; ride my bicycle; cut out paper dolls; or read. I mean, it was .25 cents a blouse. Totally worth it to me!
I did have multiple streams of income back them. I returned soda bottles (5 cents for the large bottles, two cents for the small.) I was a PK (preacher’s kid). Parishioners often gave my brother and me a quarter or even a dollar on Sundays. I certainly loved my grandparents, but in addition to the love they sometimes gave us an extra dollar.
But if I didn’t have the finances, I might have tried to barter, for instance, offer to go to the store for my aunt when she didn’t want to go. The only snag would be, as a child you don’t have much to barter with because if adults told you to do something, you just did it.
There is just so much time in a day. You can’t get everything done, especially if you try to do it all yourself. So now I’m all grown up. And I still like doing what I like to do. So, I prioritize. I find opportunities to choose what brings me joy, and make the time to do them. I have to decide which things must be done, that only I can do; cross off the time wasters; then delegate some of the other stuff. I’m still left with pain in the neck stuff…but a lot less of it and more time to enjoy. I’m willing to pay to make the time to play.
Love and realness,
#lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com
I like doing what I like to do.
This statement seems simplistic at best.
Don’t we all like doing what we like to do?
The problem, for most of us is that we don’t spend most of our time doing it. Much of our time is spent avoiding what we don’t like, procrastinating, and then painfully doing it anyway. Is it better to beg, barter, or pay for the freedom of doing more of what you like? My answer is “maybe.”
One of my responsibilities as an elementary student was to iron my blouses for school. Blouses were cotton. Cotton was very different back in the day. Not a blend. Not wash and wear. Rough dried. Wrinkles on top of wrinkles. I’d have to sprinkle water, roll them up, and then carefully press with a super-hot iron. Maybe spray starch, as well. This was one of my least favorite things to do, but girls and boys needed white shirts for assembly every Friday. This particular week, all four of my white blouses were washed and rough dried. School assembly was the next day. What’s a girl to do?
I received a dollar allowance every week for much of my growing up. A dollar, in my world, was worth 200 pieces of a variety of candies, and gum; ten Ring Dings; or one movie. Or a dollar could pay for what I didn’t want to do. My idea was clear. Ask my aunt to complete the task I dreaded, for a fee, in order for me to have more time to do what I enjoyed. As far as I was concerned, paying her my allowance freed me to do something I liked to do: rollerskate; ride my bicycle; cut out paper dolls; or read. I mean, it was .25 cents a blouse. Totally worth it to me!
I did have multiple streams of income back them. I returned soda bottles (5 cents for the large bottles, two cents for the small.) I was a PK (preacher’s kid). Parishioners often gave my brother and me a quarter or even a dollar on Sundays. I certainly loved my grandparents, but in addition to the love they sometimes gave us an extra dollar.
But if I didn’t have the finances, I might have tried to barter, for instance, offer to go to the store for my aunt when she didn’t want to go. The only snag would be, as a child you don’t have much to barter with because if adults told you to do something, you just did it.
There is just so much time in a day. You can’t get everything done, especially if you try to do it all yourself. So now I’m all grown up. And I still like doing what I like to do. So, I prioritize. I find opportunities to choose what brings me joy, and make the time to do them. I have to decide which things must be done, that only I can do; cross off the time wasters; then delegate some of the other stuff. I’m still left with pain in the neck stuff…but a lot less of it and more time to enjoy. I’m willing to pay to make the time to play.
Love and realness,
#lindamichellebaron
www.mylindamichellebaron.com
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