“That’s the worse thing you can do when you have a blog” my husband said to me when I shared with him I hadn’t posted anything in a few weeks.
Just to add up to my guilt and sense of being behind in all the projects I’m going to accomplish. On the other hand, these sentences keep me on my toes, and that’s his intention by telling me that.
The other side of the coin is a Spanish friend from the beach, where I’m going with my family these weeks, who makes the bread at home for her daughter’s snack at the beach. She walks her 84-year-old mother in law for a swim in the sea, and helps me out to find someone for me to play tennis with.
One more time the concept of time comes up for me. Not time management in an every day life, but the stress of time going by quickly and not getting done all the things I want to get done.
The concept of guilt. The usually eternal ‘on’ switch in a woman’s mind. The living in the past or in the future. Either the: I should have, could have, must have, if I only knew I would have, or the what if? And if?
These couple of months I am coaching an extraordinary woman. With the story she has she could be in really bad shape. Instead, she’s built herself a pretty complete life. One of the things I’m helping her work on is to RELAX. Take one thing at a time, knowing that it’ll all get done. Acknowledge herself for all she’s accomplished and stop for a minute. Think of what is more important for her now, and then go forward taking it one thing at a time.
Hello??? I can pass this on well, because I live it day in and day out since I have memory!
Every time I catch myself getting overwhelmed or guilty that I’m not doing this or that, I stop and THINK. What’s most important for me now? Not comparing myself to anything or anyone, just staying focused on what I want.
I set my standards.
You set your own standards once you KNOW what you want and are CLEAR about it. That’ll make the moments of guilt and frustration fade away. Watch who’s standards your living by. Make sure they’re yours and that you stick to them.
I’m in Rimini, in the seaside, for a few weeks. This is my moment to do things I don’t do during the year. The freedom of going around by bike, as I did this morning to buy fresh fish. Watch Disney’s ‘Spirit’ for the hundredth time with my daughters, take a bath at the sea with my husband. This is what I’m doing now and I want to make the most out of it, I want to enjoy it and relax.
This doesn’t mean I completely throw the towel. My super achiever cells get their fix in the mornings while my family sleeps or play with their respective toys. I get done the work I need to get done, I feed my family, read books that help me grow and once in a while run through my dreams and goals. Enough.
For now enough on that front works. I know at the end I will do the things I want to do that are important for me.
What is really important for me right now is to enjoy my vacations. To spend play time with my daughters and my husband and remember what it’s like to have time off, to sleep late, watch all the sports in the Olympics and prepare fresh lemonade!
Remember, what’s important for you, you’ll get done. You have time.
There’s so much one can do in a day, but so much you will get done in a lifetime.
Enjoy!
Nancy
