We’ve heard of the saying ‘take time out to smell the roses’ and we all know what it means and the significance of the words as well as the consequences of not doing this.
Unfortunately, for many of us, we are caught in the treadmill, the carousel, unable to stop, get off, breathe, and most of all enjoy! When we do this and get stuck in the rut, this becomes the ‘norm’, we tell ourselves things will change next week, month or year, but we know deep down things never will. Only we can make the change in ourselves. Only we can stop ourselves doing things the way we’ve always done them.
It is almost like an addiction, we don’t know any different, and when we are really busy, we tell ourselves we thrive on the challenge, we perform better under pressure, we would be bored otherwise! Unfortunately, we cannot sustain a lifestyle like this, and we do need to slow down in between the peaks of busy-ness to enjoy our lives, our family, our hobbies, our home, our friends and our health.
Pacing ourselves amongst the ups and downs of our businesses or our lives or jobs is essential. Sometimes it’s hard to do this ourselves. Why? Because we are too busy!
It starts with being aware of ourselves, our bodies and our minds and asking ourselves if this is the way we want things to always be. The next step is doing something about it. This may be seeing a counsellor, a coach, having a mentor or someone whom you might be able to sit down and talk with about what you are doing, why and where you are going, that is if you know where you are going, you may not! If we do find someone whom we can talk with or to, we need to listen to the advice we are given. Think about the positive changes we want to bring into our lives and be focused on making those changes.
This now moves onto the most important task, which is making things happen. Taking time out to smell the roses. Relaxing and not feeling guilty. Not feeling we must pick up our phone or read that email or reply to that client or customer. We need to be able to set priorities and boundaries and try to maintain the new way forward.
