Sustainable To Enjoyable
If you had to live the day you had yesterday over and over again would it be sustainable for you?
I’m going to guess no.
I know where your at momma. You hit the floor running in the morning and you don’t stop. All. Day. Long.
And then what? Your burned out.
You crash.
You’re overwhelmed.
You fall apart.
Yup.
So what do we give up? How can we manage our days so we can joyfully live it over and over and it doesn’t burn us out? Does your schedule reflect you meeting your own needs, your obligations, your full work schedule AND enjoying your time with your family?
Probably not.
I’ve had to look at my schedule and take a big ol’ sharpie market and start crossing things out. And that’s where my core values come into play. I can ask myself is it TOTALLY essential? And is it fun?
A lot of times we tell ourselves we “have to” do something. But I’m calling you out momma we don’t HAVE to do hardly anything. We create our own expectations for ourselves AND we take on our family and friends expectations for ourselves and then guess what…. Your burnt out.
And then you’re NO good to NOBODY!
When we take away all of the expectations and chose to do things that we WANT to do. Things that are fun! And of course things that are essential. Life becomes not just sustainable but enjoyable!
Now this is the part you might need a little extra help. If I had to guess all of you mommas think a lot of things are essential that are ABSOLUTELY NOT!
If I could have snapped a picture of my house yesterday I could illustrate this idea so much more. Yesterday my house was an absolute disaster. Days worth of dishes, laundry piles on the floor and the dining room table, book bags piled up, paperwork covering the island. But guess what? I walked right by it because I had something scheduled on my calendar that I WANTED to do. So I didn’t bat an eyelash at it.
We get to decide what is essential. My essentials come down to working X amount of hours, and keeping my kids alive. Keeping my kids alive consists of feeding them (and even having them feed themselves at times) and checking the sanitation level of the house and them from time to time.
I’ll tell you what’s NOT essential:
Attending every playdate your invited to
Taxiing your child to every sporting event and extracurricular that’s ever been advertised in the school
Committing and volunteering for every event known to man
Cleaning your kitchen everyday
Exercising (Did I just say that?? Come on ladies, we do it because we want to. We get plenty of “exercise” raising children. You don’t HAVE to.)
Doing things because you feel guilty (Yeah you fill in the blank on that one, I know you’ve got one of those on your schedule.)
We get to decide what our essentials look like. So do yourself a favor and take it down a notch. Put yourself in a position where your life and your schedule is not only sustainable but actually enjoyable.
