Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. We all have one, something we are avoiding, overlooking, or just not getting done. It’s always more daunting then it seems, somehow the longer it remains in the corner the bigger the task appears, till we eventually get around to it. You might not feel especially positive or negative towards your elephant but, if you do then the task is all that much bigger.
My elephant is 115X115X12cm to be precise. It has been in the room, literally the sidewall of my living room, for almost a year and a half. In which time it has been many things: a make-shift bookshelf, unconventional home decor, and undoubtedly a reminder of the goal I had long ago set out to achieve. Without question, the amount of time I spent promising myself I would get around to it, I could certainly have attended to this task several times over. I haven’t even mentioned the financial investment still, somehow I managed to turn this box into an elephant in some sense.
This week it seems I have a new vantage point for both my personal and professional goals. Maybe something to do with the recent holidays of insightful Jewish interpersonal and intrapersonal reflection. Somewhere in there I have renewed excitement and am ready to focus on my goal of self-study in 8-shaft weaving with my elephant……a treasured, Louët David loom. Building this loom had simultaneously created the space needed on my 4 shaft loom to welcome in students who wish to learn and weave their own projects.
In truth, the Louët David2 footprint is so tiny that it is a gem in the room compared to that box. And like any good task that’s been faced with procrastination, I finally realized when the time had come for me to build the loom. I’d run out of excuses and run into enough reasons to put my mind to the task. Surely enough, a few hours of manual labor and some recycling bins later I was left with my (not so) brand-new loom.
I’m sure it won’t be before too long that I search around for other unfinished projects and half-done tasks that have collected dust and fell to the wayside. But, for the moment, I’m going to put my loom to good use for all the times I thought about using it and couldn’t bring myself to its assembly.
And I would encourage you to do the same, consider the elephant in your home, it need not be the size of a literal elephant, like mine. You can start with something small: responding to a dynamic work email, sorting through the bottles under your bathroom sink, finally mailing those ‘thank you’ cards. Whatever it may be that you’ve been meaning to get around to, remind yourself that often times the payoff can be bigger than the effort, especially in a case of procrastination. And when the time does eventually come to finish that project, it’ll be all the more worth it.
If you are interested in learning more about Louët Looms you can find that here in the brochure. For further information or to purchase a Louët product you can email me, I would be happy to guide you.
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