Magic is the Art of Seeing

What do You Do?

Do you ever have days when you feel rather listless and dull? Do you fritter away the day avoiding some task that you know needs to be done just because you don’t want to do it? That task weighs upon your mind like some huge Purple People Eater sitting on your shoulders and nagging you to feed it. Even though you know that things will be better when the task is done, you just can’t seem to force yourself to do it. Maybe you’re afraid of doing something wrong, or perhaps it’s just that you don’t have the energy to overcome your inertia or maybe it’s your concern that purple people won’t like to be eaten by a Purple People Eater…

On days like that, what do you do?

When I find that I am giving in to ennui or avoiding some chore, I have to give myself a stern lecture. I have to remind myself that I am a Wizard.

What self-respecting Wizard would allow a Purple People Eater to sit on her shoulders and kvetch? What would-be Wizard would let worry about a silly task drain away all her energy and magic? Which Witch would let her self-doubts keep her from doing her daily duties?

There is nothing more deadening to the spirit as to let worries and burdens weigh you down. When you find that you are actively avoiding some task, then shake your head in disapproval at such foolish behavior. Don’t put up with such nonsense on your part. Any task can be accomplished if you just put your mind and a bit of magic to it.

Just get it done.

You’ll be amazed at how magical you feel once that task is crossed off your list.

The moral is: “Never let a Purple People Eater sit on your shoulder.”

So how do you banish the blues and stop procrastinating? I’ll be happy to hear from you.

Sincerely,

 

What do you do?

 

Comments

  1. tirdil Says:

    Hi, its me again. It appears in my anxiousness or overzealousness to communicate with whomever is behind the persona or character of dr. silvia I have inadvertently scared that person off and I do apologise.

    Now getting back to reality I hope…lol. I strongly suspect the person behind the character of sylvia is either Lori or Corey or at least I hope so. If not whomever is role playing Sylvia is awesome.

    Okay I got involved a little bit on your messageboard found a person who assumed wrongly that my post was a call for help which labelled or branded me mentally ill…causing the person responsivle for the character of sylvia to responding to my student assignments as it isn’t nice to tease the mentally ill…otherwords me.

    I’m sorry if that caused you this impression. I also realise by re-doing my assignment I contradicted myself and maybe that made you think I was disingenous. I am not but I often do hold contradictory and opposing views at the same time. I guess you’d call it a bit of congnitive dissonance if you will.

    Now let’s pierce the veil fully. Here we are the end of December 2011. We find aging but beautiful people…programmers Lori and Corey Cole with a cool ass website (this one) and yet another great idea…school for heroes game.

    You’ve met with some success with the website in the past from what i’ve read on the forum..but according to comments made there recently it seems to be floundering. I’m sorry for this.

    Let me speak to this: –> floundering website.

    Okay respecting and honoured dear people lori and corey. I only have limited knowledge of you. I love(d) your game Quest for Glory IV. I hate Quest for Glory V. mainly because of the small damn text also the interface is different from what i enjoyed in Q4G4.

    Now we got people wanted you to make a ‘comeback’ come on one more game. Even if you do succeed in doing so there will always be the next call for yet one more game.

    Where do u think James cameron stood after making the movie Titanic. It was considered his epic masterpiece..where else was he to go? He could have spent the rest of his life resting on his on laurels..like the comedian says’ I’m Rick James biatch. I made Titanic, biatch.

    So where do you go after achieving your opus maximus or whatever you call it? How to keep from resting on your laurels if u will?. Making Q4G4 did not end your lives or your careers. You kept on living your life and doing other things..but the discovery of that game caused me such immense joy.

    I wanted to share with you that when I was younger possible around 27years of age I remember picking up a copy of Quest for Glory 1 i thinkit was in my local Walmart store in 1997. I had no clue what it was or to do with it. I knew only that I wanted whatever it was. Computers were new to me at this time. I had no clue what to do with it. So I didn’t buy it.

    Its amazing to me now that I got the chance to interact with either one or both of you through sharing appreciation with you of your programming efforts and time and how much enjoyment I had at rediscovering that game for the first time and your continuing efforts to stay connected to your fans.

    I hope you don’t get caught up in trying to top yourselfs and become disappointed or disillusioned especially that keeping in mind..if u do trump urselves over Q4G4. By making something new now…even after that’s been said and done there will always be someone else wanting something more from you..the next great thing..a follow up or sequel to that..remember we are only as good as our last performance.

    I just wanted to say. I love you guys and I thank-you for all you’ve done and will continue to do and I want to ask which one of you if any is Dr. Silvia and will my additional tests become graded and will new assignments be available again and graded with regularity?

    Also a very interesting side note. I am exploring spirituality now. Something I’ve noted is whomever is playing the character of Dr. Silvia is very positive, upbeat and honest. While I focus more are dark things.

    I say this here in the comment section because its almost like this is a secret or hidden section that isn’t much seen and I want to avoid online internet arguments with people thinking I’m insane (mentally unstable).

    The end?

  2. Silvia Says:

    My dear Techempage,

    I use a similar method for dealing with procrastination myself. It takes away some of the guilt when I know that I actually do get something done.

    The worst thing about procrastinating a task is the longer I put it off, the more daunting and guilt-ridden I feel about it. How silly I am to make myself feel bad about accomplishing something! Clearly, I just need to remind myself of how good it feels when I get something done.

    Then, maybe, just maybe, I’d just do it in the first place.

    Sincerely,
    Silvia

  3. Silvia Says:

    My Dear Bffuo,

    You will soon receive an email confirming you as a full-fledged Wizard student at our school. At that time, you will get assignments on the sidebar of your personal page. All assignments will be graded by me as soon as I can get to them.

    Welcome to the School for Exceptionally Talented Wizards.

    Sincerely,
    Silvia

  4. Techempage Says:

    One way I have found to deal with the procrastination problem is to have a list of easy stuff that needs to be accomplished. I feel if I am going to procrastinate, at least I can be productive about it. And then I get to mark those easy things off, get some cheap wins and get the energy flowing to perhaps tackle whatever I have been procrastinating on.

  5. bffu01011 Says:

    um i need help!! i don’t know how to do any classes on here!! i am new!! help!!

  6. Silvia Says:

    My Dear LadyBard,

    This is an excellent way to accomplish tasks. Defining your goal is critical to accomplishing it. It’s all good and well to say, “I want to write my Spellbook this month,” and then put it off until the end of the month and never actually get around to it. However, if you say, “I want to write a Spell a day into my Spellbook,” giving yourself clear goals and a deadline, why, at the end of the month, you’ll have an entire Spellbook written.

    I quite like the idea of the “Mosquito” part. There’s always some unpleasant task that can be used as a punishment for procrastination. Either you accomplish your main goal or you are forced to accomplish a more unpleasant one. Either way, you get something done.

    This suggestion is both clever and well-written. I hope everyone adds this to their arsenal against procrastination.

    Sincerely,
    Silvia

  7. ladybard Says:

    When I need to motivate myself for some task, I use a spell that I learned from NaNoWriMo, known there as “The Carrot and the Stick” or (in Camp NaNo) “The S’More and the Mosquito,” but which we might refer to as “The Potion of Happiness and the Curse of Punishment” or something else appropriately wizard-like.

    The first step to casting this spell is to define your goal in a concrete manner and set a deadline that you’re pretty sure you can meet, even (especially) if it will be a bit of a challenge for you to meet it. Deadlines are magical things that even by themselves have some potency, but extra potency can also be added by the rest of this spell.

    The next step is to choose two motivators. One should be a positive motivator, something that you want to do. “I will allow myself to read a chapter of that new spellbook that just arrived,” “I will buy myself some of those dragon scales I’ve been eying in the local market,” “I will let myself try out that new spell formula I’ve been working on.” This is what you get if you manage to complete your goal within the time frame you have set.

    The second motivator is something you want to avoid at all costs. “I will give the alchemy lab a thorough cleaning,” “I will alphabetize my old spellbooks,” “I will refrain from magical experimentation until this task is completed.”

    Write down your goal and the motivators. If possible, share them with someone to increase your accountability. And most importantly, follow through. If you have promised yourself a reward for completion of the task, you may not have the reward until your task is completed. If you have vowed to abstain from magical experimentation until the task is complete, then you must abstain from brewing up a new potion to enhance your magic mirror’s receptivity until after you’ve done what you set out to do.

    I’ve found that when I do this, it serves me well in assisting me to get done what needs to be done.

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