Inertia

OK, so I'm not totally gone,but posting will continue to be light for a while.See, I'm having this problem with inertia lately (an object at rest cannot be stopped!). Usually when I have this problem it is because everything fucking sucks and I have trouble working up the motivation to do anything when it is all tres sucky (but I have coping mechanisms to deal with this conundrum). That is not currently the case. Things are going pretty fucking awesome on several fronts, and I really, really want to take advantage of that stroke of good luck and momentum. However, I am struggling to actually do as much as I should be about it.I think it's mostly because I am juggling a squillion different balls at once, and so it's been very difficult to put several of them down and really focus on just one (or a few) that need to be my top priority at the moment. It would be a very good thing if I could make myself do this, because then I could just finish with those top priority ones and take them out of the rotation. Then I would have net fewer balls in the air and I focus my attention a little better in general.A friend of mine said to me the other day that her favorite motivational strategy is to tell herself that any wasted day or wasted effort or just a day spent not as productive as she could be, is one more day prolonging her time here. (She's in grad school, so the getmethefuckouttahereandfast! sentiment is one I can sympathize with.) Thing is, I'm not sure this is a good strategy for me. I'm liking what I do and (for the most part) my working environment. Of course I don't want to be a postdoc forever, but it seems to me that I ought to be focused on quality (of publications, training, etc.) rather than counting down the days to just get out. Because what's on the other side? I don't know yet, and I should probably figure it out before I start racing toward the finish line (or so that I can start racing toward the finish line with some kind of prize in sight).Any collective wisdom out there?

Labels: Inertia