Happy April Fool’s Day! Sometimes I think I should adopt this as my own personal holiday, as I way too often end up feeling foolish. Let’s start with the fact that I haven’t blogged here for an entire month! March is kind of a blur to me.
My classes ended on Friday, so most of my March was spent frantically trying to get everything done and turned in. I managed to do so for my Individualized Studies Seminar, which was extremely important since that class is what determines my entire degree program and what I need to do in order to earn my Bachelor’s degree. But my other class, Research Methods, is where another incidence of feeling foolish comes in. I did not realize when I registered that pretty much the entire point of the class is to come up with a research proposal that I can use for my degree. And since I had not completely figured out my degree, that posed a bit of a problem. Eventually, it was decided that I would use this research proposal as a marketing study for an Independent Learning Contract in the Fall term, but that decision was made so late in the term that getting my proposal done before the end of it was extremely problematic. So I had to feel foolish once again, and beg my professor for an Incomplete and extra time to finish it. She has been very kind in granting me an extension until May 5th.
So along with this foolishness, there comes a sense of failure. Not only did I not get my project for school done in time, but my plans for my business came to a screeching halt during this first quarter of this year. I had many plans at the beginning of the year, and very few accomplishments thus far. I’ve let so many things fall by the wayside: my One Hit Wonder Project, my Five By Five/Fifty posts, my gratitude lists… it’s really easy to look at all the things I haven’t done and feel like I’ve failed.
But you know it’s not like me to dwell on the negative. I truly believe the saying that you haven’t failed until you quit trying. Then I found this blog post: How to Never Fail at Anything, Ever Again (John’s got some great stuff, so go read that and check out the rest of his blog). Basically, the idea is to couch everything as an experiment. “If your goal is to experiment and learn something, it’s pretty hard to fail.” This is a rather powerful idea, and right up the alley of my wonderful brain that loves to mix creativity and logic. If an experiment doesn’t work, I have still learned something. If a plan I’ve made gets derailed, it hasn’t failed, it’s just been postponed or modified.
And we have learned that when I make plans, the universe likes to take the opportunity to laugh at me. I guess I am the universe’s fool. But I don’t like feeling like a failure, so I’m going to take steps to erase that word from my vocabulary. First, I will make commitments to my overall projects, but not any particular schedule, because I’ve learned that things will happen to prevent me from keeping it. I will experiment with doing things on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, but I will give myself choices within that framework that range from quick and simple to much more complex, so I have a chance of completing something when I have less time and energy, and can concentrate on the “big stuff” when I have more time and energy. For example, the One Hit Wonder Project is extremely complex, requiring multiple posts and page updates as well as research, while posting a few Simple Charm Necklaces is pretty easy. I have several ideas for revamping my projects, but I’ll save those for another post.
I’ve talked about fools and failures, so you’re probably wondering where the flames comes in. Well, I have been talking with my hair dresser about making my hair look like “dark flames” for awhile now, and yesterday was our first experiment with it. The main color is called Mahogany Blonde, so I guess I’m a blonde now, though this is still obviously red. She added red and orange streaks underneath, and added some layers to the back so they’d peek through. The pictures taken inside don’t really do it justice, and we’ll likely be adding more streaks and layers in round two of the experiment, but I’m pretty please with the results. The natural wave in my hair adds to the flame effect, as you can see in this first picture:
Wondie’s Flame Hair – Pic 1
This one shows some of the streaks better:
Wondie’s Flame Hair – Pic 2
But the pics taken outside in the sun REALLY show off the color better:
Wondie’s Flame Hair – Pic 3
So I guess when the sun shines on my hair, it really bursts into flames!
Wondie’s Flame Hair – Pic 4
And those of you who follow my personal Facebook and believed I meant that I went “real” blonde, I guess you got your April Fool’s joke a day early. 😉
Rewondered Blog 
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