Cut Challenges Down to Size

Aiuto!

Rome sent me a localization file of 6,000 words to translate from Italian to English by tomorrow night, and I gladly accepted. Of course, today as nieces and nephews ran through a loud home bustling with relatives, I remembered why I couldn't work this week-end.

The funny thing is that when I didn't receive any files on Monday, my unjustified subconscious fears managed to brake through the filter of reason and by the time they were done with my mind, I truly believed I wouldn't receive any more files from this company, yet here I am, drowning in work! As a freelancer, I'll take "too much work" over "no work", any time...

Which reminds me, after yesterday's post, I opened my email box and some one was kind enough to send me this:

When I despair, I remember that all through history

the ways of truth and love have always won.

There have been tyrants, and murderers,

and for a time they can seem invincible,

but in the end they always fall.

Think of it - always.

- Mahatma Gandhi

So true, so true.

While I'm at it, I'll leave you with a short essay that applies to my current "despair":

Cut Challenges Down to Size

by Ralph Marston

Unlike most things, challenges almost always look bigger and more imposing from a distance than they do when you get close to them. Most of the challenges you're avoiding will not seem nearly so overwhelming when you choose to actually face them.

The challenges that intimidate you require your assistance to do so. On their own, they're really not so tough, yet in your imagination they can grow to monstrous proportions.

The way to cut those challenges down to size is to get busy working on them. Once you're immersed in the details you'll realize that they're not so bad after all.

How many times have you desperately avoided something, only to discover later that there was really no reason to avoid it at all? Very often, the effort spent avoiding a difficult challenge is more demanding and burdensome than the challenge itself.

What have you been avoiding because you just didn't want to deal with it? Imagine how great it will be to have that burden fall completely away.

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Does dancing around the room to Latin beats instead of translating qualify with "just don't want to deal with it?"

I must admit that when I finally turned off the radio and sat down to translate, I began to make steady progress through the file. It's actually a "light translation". What was intimidating me was the word size... but thankfully, I was able to mentally cut the file down to its true size, and as I work through it, it looks like I'll finish by tomorrow evening, well ahead of the deadline. Not bad. Not bad, at all.

But I'm still drowning in work... on a busy family week-end.

So, without further ado, I think I'll go back and work, baby :)