How Many Times a Day Do You Say Yes?

It’s funny how little lessons and aha moments can be wrapped in the oddest things.  As part of my marketing for one of my sites I’ve decided to use video.  I’ve been meaning to do this for well, ever. I finally decided to get down to it and just do it.

I’ve done a few “inspirational” type videos before, and wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to create a marketing video, and for a site filled with easy chicken recipes no less.  It occured to me yesterday afternoon I could do it very much like the inspirational videos and just take pictures through the process of creating the meal.

I found a great recipe to work with and then realized I didn’t have one of the ingredients. A quick trip to the store here is a 15 minute trip each way. So I packed Hanna in the car and trekked on out there and back. It was getting late by this time . . . how does the day slip away so quickly?

I started pulling together the ingredients so I could get a group shot before we started, and realized I was out of garlic powder. How on earth that happens I have no idea. I use garlic powder in almost everything. Ok cancel the salt in the recipe and throw in garlic salt instead.

I started putting the dish together taking pictures after each step. That’s when my husband comes home and asks if I just took a picture of raw chicken lol.

After the chicken was in the oven I decided to make some cornbread to go with it and realized we had no milk. Who drank the last of the milk? Well since I pour for two people who live here, it must have been the third. I thought about running back to the store but the chicken wouldn’t take that long to cook.

I finally decided to call our “neighbors” (they live about a mile away) and ask to borrow some milk. They agreed and I ran over. When I got there I was bludgeoned by a Christmas decoration explosion. I forgot their house is on the Christmas parade of homes, and WOW. It was beautiful, but I can’t imagine having the time to put all that stuff up, and THEN have to take it all back down again! We barely got one tree up.

Dinner was delicious. If you’d like the recipe you can get it on this quick chicken recipes lens. It’s the Mexican chicken one.  I’m also going to put the video on there as soon as I get it finished.

Which leads me back to this whole video thing. I’m trying to decide whether I should use music in the background or just narrate the process.  Each thing brings its own difficulties, finding music I can legally use, or figuring out how to capture my voice on the computer and effectively put it together with the images.

It dawned on me through this whole process how many times in a day or a project I have the choice to give up. We are big on giving choices to Hanna around here, she seems much happier when she has control over some of the things going on in her life, but I never really thought about the choices I make.

I’ve always been one to say you always have a choice, but never really realized how many times in one day I choose to keep going, when I could just as easily just quit.

There are at least 3 or 4 times I could have chosen to throw in a pizza or call for chinese food during that meal. I could have chosen not to do the video because I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it. I could have chosen not to make the corn bread when I realized I didn’t have milk. I could have chosen not to make the video when I realized I didnt’ know how to do the sound. I still can choose not to do the video when I realized I STILL have no clue how to make the audio work.  I could always choose not to do something that makes me money while I’m sitting here at this computer working.

I’ve heard a quote about the fact you make a choice every second of your life, and I suppose it is true. I guess this is where having an outcome in mind helps you navigate all those choices. No matter what it’s about.

My desired outcome for my daugther is to be a self starting, independant thinker, who is happy and healthy. That really makes a difference in how I make choices in relation to her. If I just wanted a kid who did what she was told I would probably be making very different choices in the way I deal with her.

It’s the same with being able to work from home. Man, I have had a million (at least) choices to say no to this and walk away. But I have a desired outcome I’m working toward, and I just keep making choices second by second that will drive me in that direction.

I am not a huge fan of goals. I think we beat ourselves about the head and shoulders with goals, but I do believe in knowing where you want to be, or how you want the situation to turn out. It gives me a great way to navigate, not only my actions, but the emotions needed to get there.

This is turning into a crazy rambly post, I guess I had some things in my head I needed to work through. Thanks for listening 🙂 and I’ll let you know how the video turns out.