Author: TheBossOfBalance

Dear Readers,

We all wear “being busy” like a badge. It’s true.. the last time someone asked you how you were, I bet you said something like, “busy, but good” or “busy”.. but I beg the question, “what are you busy doing?” If you are me, that answer might look like this.

I am busy working full-time and being a wife, aunt, daughter and friend. I am also working hard to make our new place a home, not just someplace we go at the end of the day. This does not come naturally to me, as “domestic goddess” is a new label I am trying on…. This is not to brag on me or my accomplishments but to rather have you take stock of your own “busy”

Are you busy saying yes to things you would rather not do? Remember sometimes we have to say yes to ourselves by saying no to others.

Are you keeping friendships that don’t deserve the effort? Sometimes this practice can go on for years, unchecked, I beg of you don’t support friendships that don’t support YOU. YOU deserve better! YOU PROFOUNDLY MATTER, don’t spend another second with someone who doesn’t believe that. Life is entirely too short.

Or are you busy living the life you want, striving for the things that matter to YOU?

Think about it!

Dear Readers, This was a Fabulous question asked by one of the seasoned people in my Toastmasters club during Table Topics this week.

As table topics go, its pretty deep, and I think that every time I speak (thanks to my good friend, Ryan Avery) I do strive to “Not give a speech” but “give a message from the heart” so I touched on some things that have made me realize I am an adult lately but that question can be taken in so many ways so thinking about it I wanted to answer it here.

I know that my life is changed because recently, when coaching someone, I felt my own spirits lift as they “got it” and I can feel good about doing work that matters every day.

I know that my life has changed because now instead of worrying about having enough, or overdraft fees or personal power outages we look for ways to give to others with our time and our money.

I know that my life changed because when I play with other people’s children, I no longer think to myself, “NEVER” I now think “Someday…” and smile.

I know that my life is changed because I am loved and love many and that was not always the case.

I know that my life has changed because this picture of me as a cabaret girl exists, I would have never have had the confidence to do that kind of photo shoot without weight loss and a very healthy body image.

How do you know YOUR life has changed?

Think about it…..

Dear Readers,

So last week I posted about saying no to others and saying yes to yourself, yes to “me time” and not planning so danged much.. I did okay until people started asking me to hang out and do things I enjoy but I realized as I said yes to some of the things NOT ALL OF THE THINGS (like I normally would) that like everything else we are doing, it’s about the baby steps… one step at a time, slowly, slowly, I will get to the place where I do less and do more things just with myself and by myself.

I stopped to think about it and think the last time I did truly nothing and I couldn’t. So on Tuesday after a very productive conference call and lots of unpacking of the new house and cleaning of the old house and running ragged all day, I just went WHOA, I am done.. so I took a shower and put on seriously fuzzy socks (many of you know my penchant for those) and pajamas and sat down and watched mindless sitcoms on Netflix and just enjoyed. I did take a call from my Mom, but you know I love talking to her and just as I am learning how to take things slowly and slow the HECK down- aka STOP DOING ALL THE THINGS! she reminded me that she has the same issue but the key is take it slow and do less. So one plan a week with friends, and one date night with the husband, and one night for cleaning, etc…

It was a good reminder and after we hung up, despite being tempted to unpack another box or do the dishes I just sat and lounged doing NOTHING.

IT WAS AWESOME!

I need to remind myself of that, and take comfort in the fact that “Rome was not built in a day” and all the other cliches about things taking time. It truly does take 30 days to build a new habit and I am excited to get started!

Think about it!

Because I am only human, I posted a picture of some of the handiwork that comes from unpacking 🙂 ENJOY! oh and drink wine when you unpack, so much more fun!

Dear Readers,

Recently I realized I am doing too much aka saying yes to way too many things.

Let me give you the run-down.

1. We are packing and moving old place

2. Working full-time

3. Unpacking and organizing new place

4. In Toastmasters where I am very active as a mentor

5. Working on chartering a new Toastmasters club at work

6. Training for a 1/2 marathon

The list could go on but you get the gist. So I think my body just decided, Nope I am done because I haven’t exercised in weeks and have eaten not at all paleo, this is not me getting down on myself, just telling the truth as I have pledged to do.

So I realized that something has to give and that something is my very active social life. Let me explain, over the last few months I have gone to see shows, have coffee, dinners and all things social pretty much continually and its only now that I have pledged to commit to fully unpacking and organizing the new place before doing ANYTHING else that I am fully understanding how much of that time was planned out to be somewhere else.

However this is a yes to myself because knowing that our space is more organized, daresay CLEAN and TIDY.. perhaps that will lead to me wanting people to come visit us instead of always going somewhere else. The old place was cute but this one is nicer and more importantly, safe for me to invite people with kiddos and without!

SO what is the point, you ask? Simple. Time is the only non-renewable resource, if you squander it, its gone. So be mindful of your time, figure out where you are spending it and DECIDE if you want to do the things you are doing or just blindly saying YES when you might need to say NO.

Think about it……