Help I think I've hit Non-Learning, and it's NO FUN!

There's a real down-side to being a contributing author on a site devoted to learning i.e. our much-loved Joyful Jubilant Learning!

What is it?

Being in a vacant learning space! 

How would YOU like to be stuck in a sticky spider-web of hopes unmet, and dreams unfocused and paralysed?

Yeah!  It's NOT pretty!

So as a desperate attempt to free myself from the sticky web of non-learning, I'm taking a different tack and hollering to you all!  I'm going to tell you what I think I need to learn! 

Now some of you may have answers that might help - you problem solvers you!  Some of you will empathise and be prepared to stand in front of the web and send encouraging words as I wriggle my way out.  Some of you may feel better just because you know you're stuck too, and won't say anything except be grateful you're not the only one! 

And all of those are fine because really my reason for writing is as much about understanding myself as it is about asking for help or inspiration!

So what do I NEED TO LEARN at the moment?

1. To stop!
   To appreciate that when I'm feeling stuck, the answer is not to pedal like crazy, but instead to stop.  See my head "gets" THAT.  Well it KIND of gets it!  But I can't seem to stop myself from pushing myself harder and harder, working longer and longer, and spinning my wheels deeper and deeper into the rut!
   Has anyone got any suggestions?  Before I wear myself into an early grave?  Because the way I'm currently managing my self-imposed workload has me feeling like I'm on that slippery slope!
   Does anyone else have this problem or am I the only freak at the party?
2. To write again!
   I know Rosa will say that there's no such thing as writer's block and I tend to agree but I just can't seem to find the right words to say.  There are half-written drafts of insubstantial crap sitting in my blog.  And I've got to tell you this article may yet join them, because as with the rest of the drafts I feel like I'm grasping at wisps of smoke and finding nothing in my hands!  I can't put words to this sucked-dry feeling!
3. To make my Palm Tungsten T5 Hotsync again!
   Ever since my son, Lovable Geek, installed Office 2007 on my pc, I can't reload the software from Palm effectively.  (and I've tried about 20 times!)  Having spent many years with these wonderful electronic diaries on my computer and in my Palm, I am now LOST without a diary.  I've had to return to sticking appointment cards in my purse and hoping desperately that I'll remember to put them into Outlook when I get home.  Because Outlook is my saviour! 
   You know how your short-term memory can only held 6-8 items at any given time?  And you know how when you try to add another item something in the current list has to drop out so your brain will continue to function?  Well THAT's why Outlook saves my sanity.  Appointments, tasklists, contacts all sweetly wrapped up in one box!  And a box that is supposedly easy to transfer to my palm Pilot!  But it isn't!

HHHeeeelllllllppppppppp

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Chris Owen of Pink Apple is an Aussie-based Relationship Specialist and blogger who shares the secrets to successful relating.  Her humourous style brings many readers to her blog Take A Bite.

Comments

[simplerich]

I had the same problem with Outlook2007 and my Palm T|X.
I think the patch I used to fix it was:
http://www.palm.com/us/support/downloads/outlook2007/outlook2007update.html

See if that will work for you. I was as lost as I could be without it. It's my brain and my scheduler and my library... it does everything for me... and then, when suddenly it didn't any more. I was a wreck. Things are better now, and the doctors tell me they'll take the thick woolen mittens off any day now. Until then I type with a big rubber pencil duct taped to my forehead. That's OK though. I can use it to hit the Hotsync button.

[Steve Sherlock]

Chris, stuck! No, you are not alone by any means. The words to a favorite song come to mind: "Slow down, you move too fast, gotta make the morning last, kicking down the cobble stones and feeling groovy" I don't know how you can continue to push yourself, if you sing that!

There are any number of writing exercises to help get unstuck. One that I see a good writer (Patti Digh) using at 37Days is simpling doing a post beginning with each letter of the alphabet. You can read her output here: http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2007/08/inventory-your-.html

Good luck with the technical issue on synchronizing with Outlook. I wish I could help there. In an earlier life I had a Help Desk that was helpful for things like this.

Honk! Honk!

[Joanna Young]

Hello Chris, good on you for being so open about your stuckness. I'm sure you're not alone. I don't know how it is for you but I go through fits and bursts of learning, it's not a straight line. Maybe it's a bit like a tree (or a child). There are times when you're consolidating, and other times when you're shooting off in all directions.

As for the writing, I'd say just try and write what you know, what you're experiencing now rather than what you 'should' be writing. And isn't that just what you did in this post...?

"stuck in a sticky spider-web of hopes unmet, and dreams unfocused and paralysed"

"I feel like I'm grasping at wisps of smoke and finding nothing in my hands"

"I can't put words to this sucked-dry feeling!"

Oh but you have :-)

Joanna

[Karen Wallace]

My dear friend, it took me a while to get to read this post of yours...

I know you have a heart as big as the Pacific Ocean, and just as deep - but when the tempest rages on the surface, it's impossible to see clearly. The water gets all murky and brown.

You're a writer, through and through (especially in this post, as Joanna pointed out), all it takes is for the storm to abate and the sun to peak out from the clouds and you'll immediately begin to see (and write) again. It's happened before, and it will happen again.

[Rosa Say]

Chris, you are so delightful. If we could all be as honest as you, we'd be hopelessly behind in reading the posts that would result here from allowing those floodgates to open.

You write with such joyful humor, that it can be hard to give you the help you ask for ... Joanna nailed it - we want to write like you do! That I will concede to you.

I still don't believe that any of the authors on this site get writer's block ... now PUBLISHING block is a whole other matter!