27 August 2012

One Day. Obsessive


There are many things I hope to achieve in life, I am, what you call, a ‘go-getter’. So in a moment of inspiration this morning I found myself writing a Bucket Things to do List. Whilst I am an optimistic person by nature, I’m also very superstitious to the point where you may think I’m bordering on OCD. To me, writing a B_ _ k _ _ List just seemed like tempting fate, let me explain.

When I was a child, if I was stressed or worried, I would make deals with fate/god/whoever was up there listening, to prevent bad things from happening. Growing up it was just mum and I, so I would often fret that she would not make it home safe from work. I would wait in the garage and make a deal with myself that if I counted every car coming down the street until she came home, she would be safe. I, of course, would hold up my end of the bargain and inevitably Mum would arrive home. Or, if I was worried about the boogie man coming to get me in the night I would type my conversations to him in my head, telling him to stay away – of course, he never appeared. Logically I know these things don’t help, but to me it’s as though not doing them will ensure something bad WILL happen.

It seems to me that things always go wrong when you are not expecting them, so I tell myself to expect every possible bad thing that COULD happen, to comfort myself that it won’t. Driving to work I think: I could be in an accident, I could get a speeding ticket, my car could be scratched in the carpark… yet none of these things occur.

By now you’re probably thinking I am a little crazy, and maybe I am but I like to think, to a certain extent, we all have these tendencies on one level or another. Maybe you like the radio volume to be set on an even number, perhaps you always put your left shoe on before your right, or possibly you eat the bottom half of your sandwich before the top half. (Yes, I’ll admit, these are some of the other things I do.)

But enough of my silly ramblings. If you are reading this and are one to have your fair share of bad luck perhaps you should consider my advice, but if you are one of the lucky ones, feel free to continue about your day. I’m going back to my Bucket Things to do List, I’ll be sure to share some of my favourites with you soon!