Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Challenge: My Greatest Weakness

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. I've had a great deal of fun with it, so naturally I'm continuing it this year. If you'd like to participate, follow that first link for the list of prompts, and then check the main site for the weekly post with links to everyone's responses (and add your own link, if you're so inclined). 

Today's prompt is "my greatest weakness".

Yeah. 

Um. Cowardice? Maybe? I mean, I do sometimes wonder if the reason I don't complete writing projects is simple cowardice -- if, more than just having a full-time job and a house with two growing boys, I don't get more writing done because (as various martial artists have also suggested over the years) You have to make it a priority, and I don't out of some sort of fear of failure. 

Except I don't really think that's fair, because I actually do have other priorities and they actually are important, also. And because back when I had less going on, I actually did finish the Great Unpublished Pulp Fantasy Novel and submit it in an actual attempt to get it published; and I have submitted short stories to various places as well, though not so much recently. 

So maybe not cowardice, or at least not something that can be summed up quite so succinctly. 

I definitely fail to read the room sometimes, especially when it comes to office politics, and that's definitely caused some issues here and there. There were several situations where, if I'd been paying attention and realized what was going on at the time, I could have done some things differently and my career would (probably) be further along, or at least paying better. Probably. But I don't know if that's so much a weakness as it is just a combination of undiagnosed ADHD and coming into the job from a nominally-similar job that actually had very different expectations. 

Letting myself get too tired. This one is a particular problem because when I get tired I tend to lean into it and try to keep getting things done anyway, which doesn't work too well and leaves me both more tired and with more things to do, so it quickly becomes a downward spiral until I finally look up, realize that I'm waaaaay more tired even than thought I was -- like, Do Not Operate Heavy Machinery tired -- and collapse. I'm working on this one, but it's definitely a recurring pattern. Of course, now that I've spent a week and half making sure that I get plenty of sleep and like that, I'm weirdly more tired -- or more aware of it -- than I was before. Less focused, certainly. 

So clearly even more rest is in order, here.

I don't know. I don't think any of us are very good at evaluating our own weaknesses; if we could, we'd probably do a better job of compensating for them and then they wouldn't be nearly as much of a weakness. 

(This is one of those prompts that's probably going to get a lot of "um... I'm not sure how to answer this?" responses, along with a number of people coming at it from interestingly different directions, so I'm really looking forward to see what everyone else comes up with. Leave your thoughts -- or a link to your thoughts -- in the comments, if you're so inclined!)

10 comments:

  1. Oof, I feel you on the tiredness...I push myself way too far and end up falling up asleep sitting up! It's a problem! This is a really interesting blog hop and I'm happy to have found it.

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  2. I understand your weariness. I think a lot of us are in the same boat.

    Hope you get enough rest soon.

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  3. Yeah ... I had no problems coming up with things that could be perceived as flaws, but I didn't really consider them a weakness, per se. It was a surprisingly tough topic.

    Re: tiredness--I'm utterly useless if I'm tired. Maybe I should have listed that as my weakness. Seriously, my brain and body simply won't work. My husband was in the navy and he said it really trained him to be "on" even when he's tired. I've watched him be awake 2 days straight because of his current job and he can still string together coherent sentences! I'm amazed by that.

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  4. You've a lot on your plate. Your stress level is high and that inhibits imagination. keep at your writing and it'll come along. It's getting harder and harder to be published by a regular publisher. Amazon is killing them.

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  5. Really thoughtful post. I hear you on the fear (and agree its probably not the right word). I go through heavy writing periods and then I stop, probably because other things take over. As long as we always come back to it... I don't know if the problem is that we can't assess are weaknesses, rather I think we often don't recognize when they are kicking in. Many of our weaknesses are actually protections we create to navigate challenges, so they tend to kick in naturally. The challenge is figuring out ways to catch up early and address.

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  6. Great post. Once upon a time, I could operate on little sleep. The older I get, the less that's true. And bless y'all re: the snow and stuff. Hope y'all are getting back to a relative normalness.

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  7. Well, finishing a novel with children is challenging. People try to act like it makes no difference but it does. If you have a full time job and children, they can and I think should, be your priority. My daughter is still young. I probably could write more if I were willing to let her sit around and watch TV by herself but I want to make sure she has real listening and interaction. Esp since she' s lost so much social contact with Covid.

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  8. I tend to take on too much, too. Then I wonder how I'm going to get it all done. Kids and pets and family and work is all on gigantic priority and we shouldn't punish ourselves for having them or needing time for them.

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  9. I find myself getting tired much more easily now, so I have to force myself to rest. I'm not good at it.

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  10. Balancing the day job, family, and writing isn't easy, and let's face it, some things really are a priority, like paying the bills and making sure the family is cared for. No matter what anyone tells you, no one can do absolutely everything and do it all perfectly. Now that I'm older, especially, I still write, but my family comes before everything. They're most important to me. People can prioritize however they want.

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Feel free to leave comments; it lets me know that people are actually reading my blog. Interesting tangents and topic drift just add flavor. Linking to your own stuff is fine, as long as it's at least loosely relevant. Be civil, and have fun!