Can't Get into the Groove

I'm not the kind of guy who lounges around contemplating his navel. I may well be a slacker, but my strong sense of self-preservation is a constant angel on my shoulder whispering, “Get off your ass and do something to make some money.”

December is always a slow month for assignments and revenue. I don't embrace this forced vacation with a happy heart. We all have a finite number of productive days in us. The difference for me is that I'm closing in on the end of mine. I hate wasting nearly a month of those days each year sitting on my dumper.

I've ranted about this before on these pages. Nothing new here. But other fallout from my annual December sabbatical is trying to get myself back in gear. Although assignments aren't exactly flowing to me – it's more of a trickle – I do have some work to do; but motivating myself to do it is proving a real challenge this year. As I write this, it's January 6, and I have two assignments partially written. I can't seem to screw up the motivation to finish either. Both deadline in less than a week.

The issue is I have work to be completed, but not enough to put me in the groove. I'm sure it's some law of physics that once an object is in motion, it takes less energy to keep it in motion. That's why car transmissions have a first gear. When there isn't a flow to assignments, I have to gear back up for each separately as they trickle in.

I am currently slogging through the trickle. Psyching up oneself to meet the challenge of the occasional assignment is tougher for a slacker. It requires drawing on energy that, by nature, simply isn't there. Attempting to generate that energy after a 30-day shutdown is a monumental task. It's probably similar to a climber gazing up at the peak of Mount Everest before grasping that first handhold. It seems almost insurmountable.

Today is Sunday. It's my beer-drinking day. (You may be surprised that I have a designated beer-drinking day. In fact, unless I'm out of town with the opportunity to visit an unfamiliar brewery or shooting a brewery segment for BEER2WHISKEY, I rarely drink beer other than on Sunday.) Because it's Sunday, I don't have to face my demons and try to coax myself into finishing one of the soon-to-be-due assignments. I get to put that off until tomorrow.

But tomorrow will come. And then what.....?