O and P today. I more usually see those letters together as OP or Over Powered, which I don't think has resembled me with the gaming over this weekend. Let's see -
Iceangel Base in the Planetbase game has been evacuated, I think I let too many people in which can lead to a death spiral as the over population breaks the food supply. And attempts at starting up Sticky Wicket Base (yep, going for the odd names !) didn't lead to anything viable. I'll keep at it because I'm quite enjoying the game.
And Elite was trolling me today ! Maybe 10% to go (can't remember what I started on this morning) and you think - a few missions, this'll go quick. Oh well. I am that next step up at last but also reached that fed up with game stage.
Alphabet ?
O is for Overwhelmed.
It's when things get on top of you, it's time to get on top of things. Stop, make a list, identify priorities, prioritise the priorities. Be realistic. Do one thing at a time. And the book has much more !
Yeah, it's felt a bit overwhelming lately. There's a few things happening in May and the one at the top of my mind is cosplay ! I need to find a realistic idea (Space Marine armour isn't realistic) that I could pull off and have look good. And I'd like it to be both ME and economic.
Apart from that, there's all the work that still needs doing on the house. I would kinda like to have visitors again someday but won't be happy until the house is in a fit state. I know, work on one room at a time, tick them off. Work is busy too, although most of work at the moment is running around after other people trying to get them to do what needs to be done. Some are good, some do what they think needs to be done (their assumptions are usually wrong) and some are a real pain. It is much better when you have your own things to do that don't require work from other people to support.
Enough about work - if you're feeling overwhelmed, take a moment to take stock. Write the tasks down, put down how much YOU care about them, tick off one at a time.
Talk to people about them. If you're overwhelmed at a daunting task, ask for advice, it can help you with finding a place to start.
O is also for Optimism
Optimism looks for the best in every situation, the upside of all the downsides, the yes in every no.
I like to think I'm an optimist shackled by my own depressive sides. The optimism comes bubbling out whenever nice messages come in from friends or Streamer Lady spots my jokey comments and chuckles at them. Yep. It's an optimism that is driven by interaction with other people. I do depend on other people somewhat for my own happiness.
P is for Perfectionism.
Oh boy this one is a whopper. You saw the From The Depths ships but you didn't see me running round in the background trying to make them as perfect as I could make them. Or the frustration when I couldn't find parts of the interface that I needed.
I hang on to tasks at work for far too long, because I want the output to be absolutely perfect. I'm doing better at that lately, because I'm recognising the valuable of Good Enough. And that can be something that doesn't have everything included, because giving someone everything can lose the important stuff in too much detail.
You have to give people what they need, not the perfect answer. Or put it another way, the perfect answer for someone will be an encyclopaedia, the perfect answer for someone else is the pocket guide.
What does the book say ?
"Trying to get something exactly right is the best way of getting it wrong. Perfection is a kind of paralysis. The tighter you hold on to something the more it will hold you back. Often the best way to improve something is to let it go."
This happens with the pictures too, where I'll spend so much time on the little details losing sight of what the whole thing looks like.
Last one for today ! P is also for Passion.
I spent so much of my life suppressing my emotions to a certain extent. I didn't let my feelings out. The passion was suppressed. I'm learning to counter that tendency now, although I still Think things about people and don't tell them. Or I just stand/sit there gawking and wish I'd told them things later. Maybe that's something from the past, where the occasions where I have let inner feelings out have led to people running away screaming (metaphorically).
"Passion has the power to transform your life - to reveal your purpose, your reason for being, your life's work. To find out what your passion is, ask yourself what you would do if money were no object."
I think I would look into running a boat. Either as a cruise around the UK and then the world, or a trading vessel. To go to new places, new ports. To see new things. I think this is why my head has been turned by the idea of living on a canal barge, although I'm nowhere near ready being able to give up work to do the cruising thing.
Perhaps 10 years ago, it would have been the gaming. Although remembering back, 2016 is around the time when odd things were starting to happen in the Warcraft guild and guildlink and Warcraft was pretty much my only game of that time. It was fun while it lasted and I gained a good few friends from back then, some of whom may well read this !
Time to go I think !
If you're feeling overwhelmed, talk to someone about it. They'll help you sort it out in your own head. Stay optimistic, good things happen, even if it seems really dark. Try to avoid the perils of perfectionism but to try to let your passions drive you. Being passionate makes things more exciting.
As always, if you'd like to read everything that is in this excellent little book, it's the Alphabet of the Human Heart (Amazon link).
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