Recognize that Your Time is Valuable
We know it and still we have mis-use it. Some activities are huge time wasters.
- Clutter emails: Unsubscribe, the option is there , use it.
- Over involvement: You do not have to be on 3 committees at work or participate in 3 volunteer groups at church or in your community. Yes participation is good for who we help and for us. Over commitment uses a lot of your time, it can wear you out and increase stress.
Minimize Minding Other People’s Business…Create Balance
Focus on minding your business. We can listen, we can help but we cannot parent an adult. We all have choices, we all make choices and on the rough side we have to deal with those choices. Letting other people use you as a continual dumping, venting trash can is not helpful to you. It will drain you, depress you and prevent you from doing something to enjoy life in your 50s. When are you going to start?
Sometimes people like to have company in their drama but they have no desire to make changes. This can be family, friends and coworkers. Support is great, repeated suckage of your time is not. Be kind, be gentle until you need to be firm but also prioritize your well-being. Remember, you do not get a do over of the time you just wasted on another 2 hour, repeated conversation. Start to make changes and if questioned, answer that you have to work on some personal well-being goals so you are directing more time to that. If someone is upset about that…it should make you think. Hmm…
Things Do Not Have to be Perfect to Start
Start where you stand. Do not use the desire to be your perfect weight to then start dressing yourself better.
Do not use, I am too busy to prevent you from starting to eat better. Set a goal to have a healthy smoothy every other day. Drink one less can of pop per week. Eat one healthy dinner per week. Eat one healthy breakfast a week. You can have vegetables that you like for breakfast. Start small, do not say you will do the change every day. Build and work on being consistent instead of being or perfect.
Paulette Bryan