Growth in 2022: March

Somehow we've arrived at the last week of March -- how did that happen? March always feels extra long to me, perhaps because it seems to contain both winter and spring (and in Western Pennsylvania, we often go back and forth between the two seasons several times over the course of the month). This year, though, it seemed to go very quickly, probably because I was busy with a number of work and personal things. This past week finally slowed down a bit (likely because I wasn't running around doing errands and school pickup and such), but I'm still surprised that it'll be April at the end of the week.

Seeing as it is the final Monday of the month, though, it's time for my monthly check-in with my One Little Word. Thanks, as always, to Carolyn for hosting our monthly link-up.

Thinking about Growth this month, I thought immediately about how I've approached some knitting challenges in a new way. There are techniques that I've long shied away from doing or trying because I had it in my head that they were hard. But can't that be said about anything that's new or that you haven't done before? Perhaps a task is hard or will take a significant amount of effort. And that might be the case, either because something requires a lot of skill or because you just haven't learned how to do it yet. But what I've found in this last month is that my perception often drastically overestimates reality. In the case of a tubular cast-on, one new thing I tried this month, it wasn't hard at all -- I just needed the right instructions for me. Similarly, I have a bad habit of putting off things that are uncomfortable for me because I think they will take a lot of time and/or emotional effort, but when I actually sit down to do them, they're a lot faster and less taxing. 

I think what it all comes down to is that I have to stop underestimating myself. I am a smart, capable woman. I have the knowledge, the skill, and the intelligence to do most things I want to do. I may not be good at everything I set my mind to do, and there may be things that I'll never be good at, but I shouldn't let the fear of not being perfect at something right away keep me from it altogether. And perhaps I need to get myself one of these shirts to give myself a constant reminder.