Lesson Learned from Lazy Susan: Just Keep Moving

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My Dad made our kitchen table over fifteen years ago. He also made a lazy Susan from the same wood that gladly serves all our delicious meals. I calligraphied the lazy Susan and over the years the letters faded from the sun. To begin I sanded the finish off. I then covered it with tracing paper to aid in the layout process. Last time I wrote lines on the wood to allow me to be consistent and even, those lines left indentations in the wood so I did not make that mistake again. I drew pencil lines on the tracing paper then tested various inks on the underside to see what color would work best. I decided to use a dark grey as it looks almost brown on the wood.

To test the layout of the letters I wrote the words on the tracing paper. The quote reads: Rich is not how much you have or where you are going, or what you are, rich is who you have beside you. I did three layouts until I was comfortable enough to do it free hand. I took a deep breath, removed the tracing paper and put ink to wood. The end product turned out very well. I let it dry for a week before giving it four coats of a clear satin polyurethane. Now it sits on our table ready to do it’s duty and serve delicious food to our family and guests.

Once I had it all done I thought about why I procrastinated so much in redoing the lazy Susan. Fear prevented me from thinking I could do it, so I didn’t start. As my first attempt had faded and literally disappeared, I was not sure my skills were up to the challenge again. I let fear get the better of me.

Fear is often more powerful than logic or reality. It was fifteen years later and of course my skills were better, but that is not what my head was telling me. I was the dolt who listened to the lies instead of knocking down the false wall of fear. Taking the first step was my most nervous moment, once I was moving forward I just kept moving. Once the momentum was with me I kept going and my confidence grew to the point that I finished AND conquered my fears.

We forget that nothing is done without hard work, energy, and the ability to overcome the lies we tell ourselves. Our brains remind us of our failures over and over again until they disable our ability to move forward. One deep breath and a bit of gumption is enough to turn off the lies. Let this encourage you to take a deep breath of your own, gather your gumption and just start moving.