It's time to be an elf who kicks ass

bykathrynluisa

105 followers

3 years ago

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao Tzu

Every night I like to give myself 15-30 minutes to play Legend of Zelda, Skyward Sword on the Wii. I do this to refocus my brain in a way that allows it to relax. Typical relaxation techniques don't work for me because they don't distract me from my thoughts.

What thoughts?

I'm thinking about how to improve my sites, what to write next, that thing a client said or did that annoyed me, the fact that I'm still having to physically touch people for a living.

Let me tell you, people are gross. I'm sure you're thinking you're not, and you may not be, but most people are gross.

I have a regular client I have been seeing every two weeks for the past two years. Every time his appointment rolls around I groan inwardly and my mood shifts. I remind myself to put on my nice face because it's only going to be a couple of hours.

I drive up to his place and as always, no matter how hot or cold it is outside he's walking around barefoot. My first thought is always, "You know I'm going to be touching your feet at some point during our session right? Why do you do this?" I say nothing of course and do my best to remember to laugh at his terrible jokes and keep my mouth shut when he starts rambling about something I wholeheartedly do not agree with or he passively complains about how his problems are everyone else's fault.

Did I mention the ginormous mole he had on his back for months? I kept suggesting he get it checked out. Eventually, it started bleeding (ok maybe I should not be eating lunch while typing this) and I refused to work on him until he got it checked.

Is it any wonder I want a different career?

Between clients like the example above and how much I dislike my own peers I have a hard time seeing the positive in my work. It's there, and I remind myself of it every day, but it's no longer enough to override the negatives.

There are some massage therapists who take their job way too seriously and they would tell me to be positive and strongly suggest using sage. Yeah...like lighting a plant on fire and filling my house with smoke is going to instantly improve my life. These same people tend to be hypocritical wannabe hippies. They claim everyone is toxic unless they carry crystals and think nice thoughts. Then they try to kill every insect that comes near them as they cheerfully gossip about everyone they know.

Not all massage therapists are like this, just the majority of the ones I know. That's why I spend more time on humor forums for massage therapists than I do the business forums. At least they're entertaining and don't sugarcoat what really goes on in our work, like getting flashed and farted on. Yeah...it's happened.

I have a slight competitive streak

This morning I laid in bed. When I finally got up I did all my usual stuff and as I was checking my fit bit app I noticed I had been invited to a challenge. I was going to win it, even if the challenge was only happening for another ten minutes.

As I ran laps from my living room to my kitchen because I didn't want to waste time getting dressed to go outside my cats kept batting at me to get me to sit down. I only ended up at second place in the challenge and I was only 0.2 miles away from first place. Not bad for only ten minutes.

Later I'm catching up on posts here on WA and someone mentions their site health being rated as Awesome. My thought is, "Damnit, how can I make that happen, I don't want to be beaten."

Thankfully as I scroll down to the comments I see that a more experienced member here on WA posted a link to a lesson stating my site health is according to WA standards isn't the most important thing. I slowed down long enough to read the linked lesson and smile to myself. My site health may not be seen as "Awesome," by WA, but I shouldn't care too much about that.

Laundry, cars, and life

Laundry a never-ending chore, especially as a self employed massage therapist. My car seems to be falling into that same category.

I just spent over $500 on new tires. I also found out there were several more problems that my regular service people should have pointed out to me and didn't when I took it only a couple of weeks ago for service and an alignment. Their service sucks, but I'm getting it for free because I bought my car from them and the warranty covers almost everything that is necessary.

Life is kind of like that, you keep moving forward, putting the miles on and you fix things as you go.

WA is certainly helping me fix my long-term income source by teaching me skills that will one day allow me to say, "No I will not touch your dirty feet for money, I'm retired!" It's just turning out to be a fix that takes time and effort and one day it will all be worth it!