We can’t be at our best all the time. Just a few words on when, no matter how hard we try, we just can’t get in the right place to get things done.
Pretty much every time I write one of these pieces, I put in the midst – or usually the introduction – some kind of disclaimer that there’s never a miracle cure offered in a mental health discussion piece. Certainly not one of mine. There’s conversation, and hopefully there’s something in there that sparks something useful for someone, but nobody writes these pieces expecting to change the world. The aim is a little lower, but no less important: they’re written to try and make someone else’s world just a tiny bit better. That’s it. That’s the goal.
That said, they require a mindset to write, and truthfully, I’m not always in it. Sometimes, my head has taken a battering and a half – or it feels that way – and sitting down to pen something with a pay it forward undercurrent to it can be very difficult. This piece originally was really difficult. I feel as though I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot lately, not always fairly, and it’s difficult to process that and shape it into something constructive.
Which is why I haven’t. Instead, I just wanted to acknowledge that sometimes, no matter how hard we try, our heads simply aren’t in the zone. They’re not doing what we need them to do at the moment we need them to do it.
But that’s okay isn’t it? Sometimes, that needs to happen. Sometimes, the shit times have to score a win against us. And sometimes, you don’t get a fully formed article on a website (well, you rarely do where I’m concerned), and instead you get a stream of thoughts such as this one.
I don’t have any answers to what I’m writing here, and suspect that time will reset the old grey matter a bit and then I’ll be back up and running somewhere near top speed. Today though, I’m not. I’m feeling it, feeling a bit run down, feeling a bit battered, but still here and still going.
Sometimes, that’s about all you can do, and I think at the very least, acknowledging that isn’t a bad thing to do at all. Hence, this.
The very best to you. This column is taking a week off next week as I need to down tools for a bit. It’ll be back the week after. You all take care, stay safe, and be well.
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