I just got back to the office from the ‘holidays’. I knew there were a lot of important and urgent things awaiting. I successfully resisted the urge to work and tried to focus on building a reserve of strength I’d need when I got back.
As I imagined things are as I had imagined. At the start of the year and I’ve already used, “hectic” as a response and punctuation. Time and excellence are of the essence!
This is only day two in the office and I feel like I’ve already dropped the ball. To start with, exercise. At the start of our break, Ingrid and I started exercising. I started losing weight during Christmas holidays!
It is helpful for us to think and keep in sight the Commitments that suffer most when life gets hectic.
Second, I had signed up for “Ten Days To Better Blogging” with the Desk PM community. I couldn’t wait to get started but a hectic two days has seen me not start with everyone. So, this becomes my Day One while all who started when it started are on their third day.
I’m committed to putting my ten days and hopefully more than a couple of hundred and more throughout the year.
The big lesson: I’ve just been reminded that there are often two areas of commitment that suffer most when life, work and so on, get ‘hectic’.
Self
Often the first commitment to suffer when life gets hectic are often commitments we’ve made to ourselves. We skimp on gym and tell ourselves we’ll put in a little extra with the next visit.
The reading, blogging and writing goals that we set fall by the wayside. We lie to ourselves; we’ll give them extra attention on the weekend. Not!
We tend to disrespect and undermine ourselves when others’ agendas become more important in time and spaces the shouldn’t be. We put things that draw even more energy from us instead of those things that fill us up.
So, as overwhelmed and anxious as you may feel, don’t neglect commitments to yourself. When commitments you’ve made to yourself suffer, it will eventually affect your focus and energy even in other areas.
Dear
The other commitments that we, intentionally and otherwise, strain are commitments to those dear or close to us. Spouses, children, siblings and close friends.
Because the people closest to us are the ones who should be, “most understanding”. Right? Because they’ve got our back, they want us to excel and want to see us get things that vex us out-of-the-way… Right? The answer is: yes and no.
While the people closest to us may be the most understanding, it doesn’t mean they don’t suffer from our turmoil. Also, to an extent, it’s their prerogative not to understand.
In our pursuit of our passions and such, we need to keep the precious people in relationships in our lives in the spaces they should be in our lives.
PS: as much as I write this, I’m really speaking to myself. What do you need to say to yourself today?