Lost in 'The Pit' and floating away on a sea of readings...

Oh boy...this blog has seriously fallen by the wayside of late. Trying to get through readings, writing, submitting and then panicking about assignment 1 and now double the panic re: assignment 2 and this is coming last on a long list of 'to-do's'.

Personally I am feeling a little lost and confused. Everything seems to be piling up and trying to find time to fit it all in is beginning to stress me a little. Actually, that would be a lot! Reading through the forums on ETL 401, I can see that others feel the same, but that is the problem with DE. No 'face to face'. I constantly feel like I am on my little boat in the giant sea of unread readings, blogs, forum posts etc, etc, with no one to turn to and I am drowning. A good friend of mine is completing a masters that involves going to lectures etc and she thinks that this is what helps her to keep going and keep up the motivation. I think that I am the sort of person who needs to feel accountable to someone....turning up to lectures with the readings etc done would make me feel accountable...doing it on my own makes it very easy to push it aside and go and do something else! Then, I get to this point and I start to panic. What to do???

I was very fortunate last week to attend a conference with James Nottingham as the guest speaker. I highly recommend his work...check out his blog at http://sustainedsuccess.blogspot.com/ . He spoke about mind sets and having either a fixed or growth mindset. Listening to him speak, I thought...yes, definitely a fixed mindset here. Don't want to take risks and just want things to be easy. I have been quite happy in my fixed mindset for the past 30 odd years. Then, some crazy part of me last year decided to try something a little harder, something to 'make me wobble', something to work on my growth mindset. What was this I hear you ask?? Enrolling to do this course! And James...boy have I been wobbling! I am feeling confused, unsure and downright scared. I am deep into the 'learning pit'. I am only hoping that I can find my way out before the the end of this subject...or maybe it will take until I complete the degree! I hope not...I don't like being in 'the pit'! Perhaps I should use the Big6 or PLUS or maybe Kuhlthau's ISP to help me get out of the pit. Or maybe I should just do some more readings....