Overexertion

How to manage/avoid overexertion written by someone who overexerts herself. 

I don't blog about things I've never been through. Wether its writing or relaxing I always try to give you guys an honest opinion and snippets of lessons learned. So here's my honest opinion from a lesson being learned. 

I overexert myself, consistently, without fail. In addition to my schoolwork, I participate in two extracurricular activities, work two jobs, and volunteer weekends at a summer camp. I also like to do things like sleep, eat, and have a social life. As well as write blog posts and books for all you lovely people.

Here's the thing, when I go to add something new (maybe the camp needs someone over a week, not just the weekend, or my Grandparents need help at their farm), I am instantaneously overwhelmed by the number of things I now have to get done. But I never feel like I'm busy enough.

The definition of overexert is literally: to exert excessively or in plainer words: to do way too much. And many times I find myself saying, "I don't have time for this." Whether it's a computer malfunctioning or losing a pen, I never have time for anything to go wrong. Which means... You guessed it! I'm doing way too much.

Here's a few suggestions to get yourself out of the rut I am stuck in:

1. Your workload does not determine your value.

I grew up in a household that idolized hard work. Wether it was going beyond what was asked or stepping up to every challenge, I was expected to go further, and I did. I would volunteer for any task, no matter how much I loathed the idea. And somewhere in the mix of things I got the idea that if you weren't working you had no value. I never really realized this until last year while I was working at a summer camp. There was an accident, I fell fifteen feet out of a lifeguard stand and onto a paddle board floating in the water below (The stand was on a floating dock. Don't worry, I didn't land on concrete). Out of that incident I received two twisted vertebrae and was unable to work for the next five days. I was absolutely devastated. I was no longer useful to the camp so why would they keep me around? I was so focused on what I couldn't do that I forgot to thank God that I wasn't hurt worse. In the end he taught me that your work load doesn't determine your value. You could work one day a week but have the most important job in the entire company. Every little drop of effort eventually creates an ocean.

2. You can't do everything.

You've all probably heard it before, but you can't do everything. Not even Wonder woman could do it. And lets face it, we're not even close to as cool as she is. So my suggestion is this; lay out a plan, put the things that you can't live without first, sleep, food, school, and work. Then add the things you enjoy, sports, outings, arts, etc... I'm not saying that your life should be completely boring, but the things that need to be done should be put down first. 

3. Limit your interests. 

As a person with many interests I totally get what it's like to want to know everything about everything. Sailing to football, writing to firefighting, baking to parkour. Everything has its pros and cons. But like I said before, you can't do everything. Pick one or two interests you have that you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life. Then invest in those, expand your knowledge and abilities in those areas and run with it. 

4. It's ok to not do what your friends are doing.

A lot of times our friends want to do something that we're not so sure about. Maybe a youth group or sport that have never really caught you attention, and they inevitably ask, no beg, you to do it with them. It's ok to say no. If they're truly your friend for the right reasons it won't matter that you're not doing every single activity with them. Sometimes you're better off for it in the end. 

5. Make time for what matters.

Yes, sleep, school, and food are important. But life can't be lived to it's potential unless you actually enjoy it. Take some time to go to the movies with your friends, or play a board game with family. If you don't enjoy what you do then what's the point of doing it at all?

After all of this, the tips, hints, and testimony, I hope you'll come to realize what I am, that it's not worth making yourself miserable trying to do everything, when you could live life to the fullest by focusing on what you love. In the end, overexertion isn't worth the time it takes away from what truly matters

Sneak Peak: Reckless

Warning: Some of the scenes I show you in my Sneak Peak posts may not make it past editing. 

Enjoy:)

"Are you trying to get yourself killed!" 

"I'm a soldier Fletcher. Dying is an occupational hazard."

"You purposefully put yourself in the most dangerous part of the battlefield, you insist on taking any and all suicide missions, you come back from scouting with more wounds then anyone else, you almost always refuse medical care, and your men have reported multiple times that you always make sure to take the brunt of any attack." He he paused his pacing to glare at her. "Have I missed anything?" 

"No I think that sums it up about perfectly" Landon Growled from the doorway. 

Katara sighed as she slid stiffly into her vest. "Not you too."

"Yes me too! You could've been killed."

"But I wasn't." 

"And how do you know that you won't be next time?" Fletcher snarled, crossing his arms and fixing her with a stare that could freeze fire. 

"I don't." She bit back, swinging her sword belt around her waist.

"And what happens if you die Katara? Huh? What happens then?" Fletcher slammed his fist against the table, raising his voice. "You have a duty to your people!" 

"I don't owe them a thing!" She shouted, rounding suddenly on the prince. Her eyes glowed like a furnace, and her jaw clenched painfully. "I. Don't. Owe. Them. One. Single. Thing. And it would be best if you remembered that." 

"No." His voice was deadly quiet. "You owe them everything." He slowly stalked forwards till they were nearly touching. His breath fanned her face as he towered over her. 

"You are the daughter of Sire Solitaire and Dame Forrest. The crown princess of Sordia. You. Will. Not. Forsake your duty to your people." 

"My duty?" She snarled "my only 'duty' is to myself. Do you know why I take those suicide missions? Because 'I' want to. Do you know why I take the brunt of an attack? Because 'I' want to. So yes, I guess I am doing my 'duty' because I am the only person who could have gotten out of those situations alive."

"Alive? This isn't living Katara. You're destroying yourself from the inside out. This is suicide." 

"You don't get to decide what I am or am not doing when you yourself so blatantly disregard orders!" She snarled.

"I do not!" 

She fixed him with a burning stare. "We can't win this war so you might as well go home to your people and prepare them for the worst." 
 

 

Please feel free to let me know what you thought below!

Abbreviations of the common kind

I, like many other authors, use abbreviations when writing blog posts. Unfortunately Thane and I have had to learn these terms mostly on our own. You don't have to. Here's a list of some of the common abbreviations you might run into. 

POV = POV stands for Point Of View, it can refer to wether you're writing in first, second, or third person, but can also refer to your main character. 

POVC = This is what I meant when I spoke of it referring to your main character. Point Of View Characters are very important and tend to be the base of your novel. If you switch POVs at any point in your book however, this term becomes all the more necessary. 

OC = Ah, the famed Original Character everyone wants to have. Most characters, while mainly your own creation, are not completely original. For example, I have a lovely character named Katara. When I named her I had never watched, or even heard, of Avatar the last Airbender. I had no idea I was naming her after such an amazing character (I actually named her after someone's dog). You'll find little bits and pieces of your character have been pulled from other books, movies, etc... Sometimes even people you meet on a day to day bases. The term OC can also apply when talking about your Own Character. 

MC = Like POVC and OC, MC refers to your Main Character.

First Person = While not exactly an abbreviation, the POVs are important to know and understand. First person is from the POV of your character, "I closed the cabinet door" "I started the fire" "I watched as they played chess". As an author it can be a lot easier to start out writing in First Person, however it can present it's own problems as well. While Inner dialogue may be easier you can't follow the storyline of any character not within sight/hearing of your POVC.

Second Person = Second person is hard, and can sound a bit silly when used in fiction writing. Some people, like C. S. Lewis, can pull it off flawlessly from time to time. Others, like yours truly, can only seem to manage it in blog format. In fact it's what I'm doing right now. "You would never..." "(y/n), you say" or your inner thoughts are used most often. The good writers use it from time to time to give the reader a picture for something they can not quite describe. Such as "You could never imagine something to taste so sweet.". When Second Person is used like this, it's normally in the context of a Third person narrator talking to the reader. 

Third Person = Third person is definitely my personal favorite. It allows you to move from person to person, and describe settings much more then any of the others. Although it does a few drawbacks. 1) you have to remember where everyone is and how many people you had in that scene. 2) It is really hard to tell people who is talking at any given moment without sounded repetitive. 3) There's no inner thoughts. You as the narrator aren't supposed to have much of an idea of whats going on inside someones head. Occasionally you can get away with "She felt frightened" but most times you have to tell about the sinking feeling of dread in her stomach. You don't have the aid of the character going "This is terrifying" in their head. Rubbish I know but it comes with the territory. 

Indie Publishing = Independent Publishing also can be called Self Publishing. Like other methods of publishing, Indie Publishing has it's own drawbacks. But unlike other methods, Indie publishing allows you to maintain a majority of control over your novel and it's destination. Wether as big the movie screen or as small as the cover art. 

Well, thats all I have for you at the moment. As I learn more terms and abbreviations I will make sure to add to the list to keep you all updated.