Slow Down, You do Have Time
/I have a confession to make.
I love slow-starting mornings in my three-season room drinking my coffee or tea. I love to take in the quiet and the sun while I allow my mind to wander and enjoy not having to rush to do the next thing. I like experiencing these mornings by myself, but I especially enjoy it when my husband and I are able to do it together.
I’m also an accomplisher. Yes, I realize that’s not an actual word, but you know what I’m trying to say. I like checking off boxes and crossing items off my to-do list. It feels GOOD.
At this point you may have realized what I’ve also realized. These two things don’t exactly go together. In fact, they can be a bit counter intuitive. Since it’s hard to do both at the same time I find that I generally don’t even try to do both. I just choose one or the other.
Most of the time I tend to lean towards the accomplisher. I’m a woman who owns her own business, but even without the added responsibility of keeping that business running as adults we’re busy people. We’ve got stuff to do, boxes to check. Right? After all, isn’t that how we always respond when people ask how we are? Busy?
When was the last time someone asked you “How are you?” or something along those lines? When was the last time you replied with something other than “fine,” “good,” or “busy”?
I get asked the “how are you” question multiple times a week, sometimes even multiple times a day. And I ask the question quite often as well. However, as I think about the answers I often give as well as receive I wonder when “busy” became the acceptable answer.
Just imagine if instead of busy you said, “I’m doing great,” “You know, it’s been a rough week” or “I’m really excited about this project I’m working on,” or “I’ve been a bit stressed lately”. How do you think people would react? How would you react if someone said something like that to you?
I realize that by giving an answer that is more than one word, you are giving an opening for a conversation. Yet most of the time, “How are you?” is a question in passing, and sometimes it seems like the asker doesn’t even listen for the answer.
I’m deviating slightly from where I started, but I do have a point, I promise.
We are so busy. When did busy become sexy? Somehow in the last 20 (?) years or so being busy has become synonymous with being successful. And success is sexy. Therefore, being busy is sexy. Right? Or not?
When did it become sexy to stop taking care of ourselves? When did it become sexy to not worry about our health and well-being?
I just got back from a conference where I was inspired and motivated and on fire to do all kinds of new things for my business. But after that conference, I took an additional two days off to spend time with a couple of my best girlfriends who don’t live in Saint Louis to just relax.
And as fired up as I was (and am) the opposition of the two parts of my trip made me realize several things.
I needed this trip to remind me that I need to be conscious about adding more balance in my life. I talk about self-care a lot, yet I consistently over schedule myself as I try to prove that I can make this crazy year of change in my business better and somehow come out on top.
However, one or two slow mornings a week isn’t going to hurt my progress. One or two afternoons it won’t hurt to slow down during my lunch break and relax instead of spending the entire time at my computer doing research, programming workouts for clients, or writing blogs. In fact, taking the time to breathe and let my mind wander a bit just may help.
This weekend I made a huge decision to recommit to helping myself as well as helping others. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but to me, it is.
It’s not going to be easy. But as I was told this weekend, “Hard is the price of admission to the life that you want”.
It’s time for me to pull out my own Time Finding Tool yet again and schedule down time in my week. Not just this week since I’m back from the trip. Not just next week as I still feel motivated, uplifted and powerful coming out of the conference. But every dang week. Even during the hard times, even during the holidays.
So now it’s your turn. What decision do you need to make? Maybe, like me, you need to slow down a couple mornings of the week. Maybe you need to ask for help, or maybe you need to stop saying yes to everything other people ask you to do.
Whatever it is, I challenge you to make a decision to give it a try. Let me know what it is below and let’s keep each other accountable over the next two and a half months and see how this goes.
