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Basking in the glow of realizing (once again) that stepping back from a situation is sometimes the best thing to do, I wondered if there was anything else I needed to let go of? I recognize that there is a fine line between letting go of things that you can no longer do anything about and simply bailing out when things get tough, so tried to think what fell into the first category.

As I was pondering, I came across an article about not trying to do everything all at once because it leads to frustration and lack of action. Not surprisingly, it got my attention, as I have been trying to prioritize the work on all my sites for several months, and constantly feel that no matter what I am working on, the other areas are getting ever further behind. It dawned on me that I had simply started too many projects, and need to give up those that are no longer going in the right direction.

Now comes the difficult part where I have to decide what to let go of. After investing so much time and energy in getting the projects off the ground, it is hard to part with any of them. As with any task however, it is important to step back and see what elements are moving the process forwards, and what are holding it back.

When I began this blog about how I use the arts to get through midlife, it was all I was doing in the realm of midlife. Then I decided that I should provide information about the psychological, spiritual and physical changes of midlife in addition to offering projects, so started on that site – which quickly grew from a projected 40 pages to in excess of 100 pages. From this I felt I needed to set up stores to offer products to provide additional information in greater depth, and have yet to fully develop my original idea of offering classes and tours on using the arts in midlife.

As I sat and knitted yesterday (if I keep my hands busy I find I think more clearly) I realized that if I was honest with myself I had become increasingly frustrated with the feeling that no matter how hard I worked, I simply couldn’t get caught up with my ever-expanding ‘to do’ list. Eventually the truth kicked in that no matter how much I like to believe I can multi-task, I actually do much better when I focus on one thing at a time. The old saying about doing one thing and doing it properly sprang into my mind completely unbidden . . .

So now I have to do some serious soul searching and decide which projects I will release, and then work out how I can get back up to speed on the things that remain. Once again, what do I need to release so I can start to move forwards again?

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