Perseverance

image via gather shop

On Saturday Christine and I went off to Gather, a beautiful design store here in the bay that focuses on textiles and natural materials (read, lots and lots of beautiful yarn to swoon over), to attend a crochet class that was my birthday present from Christine. It is such an inspiring space, so many colours, shapes and fibres and spending an afternoon learning a new skill amongst it was super refreshing. Like many of us I'm sure, I can easily get stuck into a bit of a rut and so doing something totally different with new people felt really good. 

I've tried to pick up crochet before and failed pretty miserably. I could never get the tension right, it always felt awkward in my hands and the stitches looked weird. Well, for the 10 minutes that it would last before I gave up on it in frustration. Having four hours to sit and take my time, concentrate and focus on one thing might normally sound like a bit of a nightmare to me. My mind is always going a mile a minute and my ideas for new things can come so rapidly that Richard now just smiles and lets me explain them knowing that I'll probably have thought of something new the next day. I saw this as a flaw in myself for a long time but now I'm ok with the fact that lots of different things make me happy. In saying that, persistance and focus is a pretty good balance and definitely helpful in ensuring that the more important of those ideas of mine actually come into being. Imagine my surprise when those four hours turned out to be incredibly relaxing and satisfying. 

I just happened to have read a bit about persevering lately, one a pretty intense article from a concert pianist about letting what you love be all consuming and another a coffee cup chat from another Becka that felt like a warm hug of good advice. I like that I wasn't getting yelled at about bootstraps, but rather encouraged to keep trying. It seems to me that lack of perseverance is often very little about laziness and more about feeling completely overwhelmed and terrified of getting things wrong. Funny that I am so aware of this as a teacher, the need to foster an environment where students feel safe enough to take risks, keep trying and be ok with failing but that advice is much easier given than taken on board. 

Here's the links for you to check out for yourself, if you like!

- 'Find What You Love And Let It Kill You', James Rhodes

- 'Just Keep Swimming', Becky Robinson at Life As An Artistpreneur

- This one isn't on perseverance per se, but can definitely help with it. I'm really enjoying Meighan's new social media blog and this post all about productivity apps from Ashley Neese was really useful. I love that the focus is both on productivity and wellbeing, the latter being something I'm guilty of forgetting about. Also, can Ashley please cook me everything forever, please and thank you. 

- Music is always a requirement for my productivity and motivation, and Jena always kills it with her mixes. Check out her latest, A Roll In The Meadow for your work week soundtrack! 

Here's to perseverance, taking risks and feeling good about it. 

xx