Take it Down a Notch (or Seven)

Dearest Readers,

As a result of some of the challenges I've been experiencing with the Big O Project I have had to do a lot of "right-sizing" both with my ego and with the job itself.

By "right-sizing" I mean putting things in their proper perspective. I'm a recovering extremist and the child of an exaggerator and much of the healing work I've done over the last decade has involved this process of shifting my perception back to the actual reality of the situation.

If you haven't seen Spinal Tap, the mockumentary by Christopher Guest, then surely you've heard the expression, "It goes to eleven," that comes from the movie. "Eleven" refers to the noise-level on the guitar amplifier belonging to the character of Nigel Tufnel, Spinal Tap's lead guitarist. All the other amps in the world go to 10 but his goes to 11.

Once, when I was in an emotional situation that seemed enormous, my friend said to me, "Celia, you come in at 11. Maybe you could approach this situation differently. Try coming in at 4."

In other words, RELAX.

So in the last couple of weeks I've gone from saying, "I'm in the middle of the biggest job of my entire life, it's just HUGE," to saying, "I happen to be doing a job right now that is asking me to operate on a bigger scale than I am used to."

Taking it from 11 to 4 has helped me to enjoy the process again, release the pressure, and right-size the experience. It's a job. Period. It will come to an end and then there will be another job. Period.

As much as Nigel drew pleasure from the extreme power of his amp, I am learning to draw pleasure from the power that exists on the middle ground.

Inspiring Message of the Day: Putting things in their proper perspective takes the pressure off and allows me to rejoice in the simple activities of the day.