I think I read the cheese book! I think my mom had wanted me to read it, a really long time ago, when I was visiting! Yeah, I remember being not terribly impressed... oh, and we were required to read "Good to Great" (?) for work. All I can remember from that was... thinking, I am SO on the wrong bus. I wonder if anyone else knows? I'm the one that they need to kick off the team!

I don't expect that *any* job is ever pure bliss, but I do think (hope!) that there are things out there that are rewarding, interesting, and meaningful enough that most of what you do is enjoyable, and the less-enjoyable parts feel less awful and all-consuming, because of the more enjoyable parts. For example, you might love hiking - but hate driving. But really, the small amount of time that you have to spend driving to a place to hike, even if you hate it, isn't that bad, because there's more than enough good-stuff from the hike to outweigh it, if that makes sense.

But, yeah, I get that *any* job is going to have some less exciting/fun aspects.

re: Not finishing up projects... is it that you haven't really planned to do it or prioritized it, so you don't think about it when you have time? Or maybe that it feels hard to start on (overwhelming, difficult?).

I think those are the big ones for me. Either I didn't make a plan, so when I have free time, I just look around to see what I want to do, and the project doesn't really grab my attention... or if I feel overwhelmed thinking about something. In that case, starting is usually harder than doing, and it helps me to spend just a little time getting my head around a concrete list of goals to get through. I don't have to do the goals right away, but listing them lets me know exactly what I need to do, so I don't get so overwhelmed feeling like it's just a never-ending sea of stuff.

But, that's me. Sometimes just saying, "I'm going to work on this for one hour (and only one hour) on this day" and scheduling it helps... it forces me to actually get past the "getting started" and get into the work, and that, sometimes, makes it easier.

But, oh gosh - I totally feel like you described sometimes too (that I have to get my house/life in order before I can start anything new). It's such a weird thing, isn't it? I don't know where that comes from, other than maybe feeling like things are chaotic and I feel overwhelmed trying to make just the mundane, boring parts of my life work... so the idea of ADDING more stuff seems crazy! The problem is, when I have free time... I don't routinely work on the house/life stuff... I curl up in bed and watch TV!!!

If you're having trouble picking one, could you pick the one that is closest to being done? My thinking is that way, you have the shortest path to finished, and then you get to feel proud and awesome for completing it - and maybe see some income if it's something you're going to sell online! Positive reinforcement!

Hmmm a volunteer project could be interesting. I wonder if I feel resistance because I don't want to be doing what I'm doing... it's that feeling that I really *should* be putting my free time into figuring out what I truly want, and since that seems to involve things like writing and theater, maybe taking classes and working more seriously on that stuff. I need to think about how I can get a little more of that in my life, without overwhelming myself too much.

Oh! I am going to try to grab lunch with my piano teacher's ex-wife! I run into her from time to time at the music place, and had mentioned it before to her (we're friendly, but not super close). I talked to her tonight, and she sounded like she'd like to do it too... and one of my goals is trying to expand my infinitesimal social circle So, it's not a job, but I feel kind of happy about that!