Lifestyle
Spirit
Are you the stereotype father of 2, you can't get any quality time with your children or partner, a schedule that doesn't allow for any time for even yourself, getting increasingly stressed, feeling that your life isn't under your control. Do you find yourself wishing you could spend more time with your children, then when one of them comes to you with something they have done at school or they want to sit on your knee or just play, you tell them that you are too busy and you'll be with them in a minute. Have you ever used the phrase "I'll just finish this" and then find that they have all gone to bed while you have been working. Maybe you can't remember the last time you spoke to your partner intimately about your lives and personal goals.
Maybe you're single with no family responsibilities, ambitious and have worked very hard to be where you are today, successful at what you do, been busy every minute of every day building your career or business but then one day realise that you haven't really been alone with your own personal thoughts for quite some time, every waking thought has been about improving your material life and enhancing your status in the world you inhabit.
You can take control of your life again and revisit your personal self to re-evaluate what really makes you happy and brings joy to your life, it will take patience and planning but it is possible, no there are never enough hours in the day, so the hours that we do have we must use wisely.
Some tips for improving your time available are :
- Prioritise important/imperative tasks.
- Say 'no' to unimportant things.
- Build time into your schedule for unexpected things.
- Don't leave tasks until 5 minutes before the deadline, the unexpected will happen.
- Learn to delegate tasks and do it as often as possible
- Stop being a perfectionist and realise that 90% of perfection is usually good enough. This includes delegated tasks. Don't take a task back because they didn't get it perfect, ask them to make it good enough.
- Find your most productive time of day and work around that
- Work is very important and is often the thing which pays for the things we enjoy in life, but remember why you are working so hard, is it because your boss wants you to, or is it because you want to build a better life for yourself and family. Remember that and don't believe that there is always time to enjoy life later.
- Enjoy it now by prioritising some family time or time with what you want to do to enhance your life.
- As a start try spending 1 full hour each week with a non stressful activity that you enjoy. Take away all other distractions including the phone (yes including mobile) and TV. It could be talking to your partner, a walk in a park, reading a relaxing book, driving to a local beauty spot. It's amazing the effect it can have on your spirit. And it is only 1 hour a week. And ask yourself what you would prefer for that hour, 60 minutes of the phone ringing, sweating over your task list wondering when there will be time to do it all. Fearing that you will fail to do something important. Or would you prefer to get out of that heart killing situation and spend some time with yourself and your thoughts or with a loved one looking at a beautiful view.
- Did you enjoy drawing as a child, but now find you haven't drawn anything for 20 years, just try it again, what's stopping you ?
- Work to live, don't live to work.
- Always remember that in your life You are the most important person You will ever meet.
