Things I should be able to do myself -

Yesterday I wrote about how much I hate cleaning and my dear, dear friends made the same suggestion to me that has been made before, and I haven't taken any notice.  I began to ask myself why not ? Clearly the answer to my cleaning problem is to hire someone to do this and free myself from the the associated guilt of not doing it myself. I decided today, during work, that I needed to examine this further and realised that I have a whole slew of things I think I should be doing on my own, things that I shouldn't need to ask for help over.

Taxes:
I hate doing this too and though my tax situation is fairly straightforward, as a self-employed consultant I have to fill in forms every year.  For many years I didn't pay my taxes at all. I just avoided the whole thing and played very stupid.  I wasn't so stupid that I believed that the government wouldn't eventually catch me so I did find help many years ago. Now I do them on my own. This has been an enormous leap for me, a quantum leap over my fear of maths and numbers, not to mention the anxiety attached to having to account for myself.

It's been wonderful to gain increasing confidence in having overcome this big block.  I may not love doing my tax forms every year, but I absolutely love the fact that I do them at all, and now without the huge terror and panic build-up.

Catering:

I find it impossible to buy in food when I have a large party. It's never a question of money, even if I have loads or not much,  I feel I have to do this all myself.  It doesn't matter if it's for my own birthday party, as it was last year and there are 50 guests.  I think I should do it all myself.  Partly this is because I can.  If I couldn't cook or bake I wouldn't think twice about buying in food, but since I can, and usually loads better than bought food, I always feel I should.

The upside of this is that I love making people happy by providing great food.  I love the look of tables laden with cakes I've baked, salads I've made and cabbage I've stuffed!  It gives me a sense of abundance that I've provided this sustenance.

Sewing and alterations:
My dad was a tailor. He used to make all my coats and altered all the store bought things I had.  I can do all these things and definitely think I should.  If trousers need shortening, sweaters need darning, coats or dresses need taking in or sleeves need resetting,  I'm right there.  The only difficulty for me is that I can't use a sewing machine. I have one and it's still virtually brand new, but I have this mental block about using it.  I sew everything by hand and that can mean curtains, long straight seams and things that I could zip through if I could get past this fear.

I am thinking of doing a course in how to use a sewing machine, but I also really enjoy quietly sewing while I watch bad TV. If I could use a machine I'm afraid that I will lose this.

Painting an decorating:
I did a university degree course in fine arts - how hard can it be to paint a room?

I knit, I crochet, I bake wedding cakes and decorate them, I write training brochures, I design management courses, I make birthday cards, I take photographs,  I organise great parties, I can do so many things and the fact that I can do them stops me from asking for help from others. If I couldn't do them I wouldn't hesitate to ask for help.

                                      For my daughter's 1st birthday I made this cake.

My old teacher, Frank Natale, used to point out that if you weren't a plumber you wouldn't expect to be able to fix a blocked toilet, you'd call a plumber.  He said that this is what we have experts for and that we should do the things we enjoy and spread the wealth around by calling on expert help when we need it.

For me, the lesson is, just because I know how to clean my house, doesn't mean I have to do it.  Now if I can only tidy the place up enough to employ a cleaner...