Oopsies Part 2: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time…
In this follow-up to my Get Off The Treadmill blog, I’m going to talk about the importance of really thinking things through before you add them to your schedule.
In Get Off The Treadmill I talked about how it’s okay to be really busy as long as you keep that busy period to a short amount of time.
I talked about how I let my “busy, busy” schedule go on to long and how it left me depleted and stressed.
I made two critical errors during that time, that led to me feeling stressed and tired out:
First, I invited a friend to go on my trip to San Diego with me when I knew full well that I was going to be very busy helping my mom and seeing my friends there;
Second, I agreed to allow my 14-year-old niece to stay at my house for two weeks right after I returned from San Diego.
Both things seemed like really good, fun ideas at the time! Buuuttt…
OOPS #1: Taking on too much all at once
I have a dear friend here in South Carolina who really wanted to come see San Diego. Now don’t get me wrong, she did not invite herself on my trip. It was completely my idea! I thought it would be fun to have her with me. AND IT WAS!
However, I did not realize how much heavy-lifting work my mom wanted me to do in order to help her. The day after I arrived I was left by myself to go through 200 boxes that were stored in her garage.
So I ended up being exhausted right away! But, of course my friend from South Carolina wanted to go and see and do things – and I wanted to go with her and show her around. But, it was really too much. I was too tired to have fun with her.
~Now just as an aside, on the topic of how friendships are important for stress management, she was awesome and took it upon herself to go explore all on her own!
Bless her!
And she did not hold it against me that I was too tired to go with her.
Again, it seemed like it would be so much fun to have my friend with me. But, if I had thought it through I would have known that helping my mom and seeing my friends in San Diego would be about all my energy levels could take.
OOPS #2: Letting the treadmill go on too long
I honestly do not know what I was thinking saying it was okay to allow my niece to stay with us for two weeks upon my return from San Diego.
She’s a sweet girl, but 14-year-olds can be a handful! And my 13-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter are challenging enough!
I was exhausted from my trip, I was jet-lagged and I had a ton of work to catch-up on. The timing could not have been worse.
Trying to entertain the kids, make sure she got to do some of the fun Charleston things, and catch-up on work was just more than my tired body could handle. It was a fairly miserable two weeks.
The Lessons
#1 Sometimes Even Fun Things Can Be Too Much
So the first lesson is, even though it seemed like it would be fun to have my friend with me on the trip, if I had thought it through I would have realized that it would be too energetically taxing to have a San Diego vacation with a friend AND help my mom.
#2 Sometimes it’s Better For Everyone if We Say, “NO,” to Family
Although I wanted to help my brother-in-law out with summer break entertainment for my niece, and I wanted to have her spend some time with us, having her stay for two-weeks was too long.
The additional stress of having her there right upon my return from my trip was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
It took weeks of rest, yoga, and saying, “no,” to people to get my Peaceful Living state of mind back. But, it’s back now.
In fact, I’m sitting on my beautiful porch with my doggies, my kitty, my plants and my lovely view of the pond as I write this. Now that’s Peaceful Living!
What are you doing in your life right now that might have seemed like it would be a good idea, but it really is not?
Can you say, “no,” to anything this week that you really don’t have the time or energy for?
Are you still on the treadmill of being too busy?
Let me know your thoughts!
In Love & Gatitude,
Jen
