Our festival yesterday was magnificent.

It had exactly the right atmosphere and combination of elements. It had the right energy and the right people to make it great.

I’m really tired today, but it’s a satisfying kind of tired, like when you can tell that your hard work paid off.

But even as I have been enjoying this feeling of having my hard work pay off, I can’t help but think of the fact that it’s always possible with a festival that your hard work won’t pay off that you won’t get the right combination of people or the right number of people attending to make things right.

What I’m trying to do is enjoy this feeling of satisfaction, of a job well done, and to recognize that my team would’ve done a good job even if we hadn’t gotten all the people we wanted to at the event.

Just like in so many other areas of life, I’m trying to practice letting go of the outcome and letting the work be enough.

It is definitely not easy though. ?

I have been doing pretty well with my goal to not rush around so much.

It’s been tricky to keep that goal in mind as I move through a festival this week but there have been several times that I have been flustered because I was short on time and then suddenly remembered that I don’t want to be rushing.

So, even though I didn’t have a lot of time, in each of those cases I was able to say, “Oh, right! I don’t rush.” And make the decision that while I had to keep moving fast, I was going to declare that feeing rushed wouldn’t help.

So I did.

And it make things better.

Because, after all, while reducing the number of my tasks or moving a bit faster might help me be quicker, feeling rushed doesn’t help and just makes me feel badly and arrive feeling flustered.

Deciding not to buy into the feeling of mental rushing means I arrive at my event feeling calmer and more able to do what needs doing.

And that’s a win.

I had to create a sample of art in autumn colours for an art challenge earlier this week and I was really pleased with the results.

Good reminder for myself, really.

Through a combination of ADHD and personality I often end up feeling rushed.

Sometimes I do need to rush. I might not have allowed enough time for the activity at hand. I might have overcommitted in my tasks for the day or sometimes things spring up and it’s unavoidable.

However, sometimes I end up feeling rushed, and there is no need to rush, nor to feel rushed.

And I need to work on that.

I need to notice when I’m feeling rushed or when I feel like I’m going to be rushed and I need to address that feeling right then.

So I’m going to assess if the feeling is coming from having too much to do, from not having enough time, or if it’s generated from something else. And then I’m going to see what I can do about it.

Because I’m really tired of realizing later that I didn’t have to keep feeling a given way.

And the only way to deal with that is to become more conscious of that feeling earlier in the process.

I’m absolutely honoured that friend of mine chose me for a part in a reading of her play.

I got a great kick out of the character and costume notes for my part – a middle aged Mom who does yoga and cares more about comfort than fashion.

You know, I just *might* be able to pull this off.