Posts tagged ‘Busyaholics’

September 20th, 2011

When Your Best Is Not Enough

I was suffering from “not enough-itis” just last week. In case you’ve never heard of it, here’s my own definition.

Not Enough-Itis: An insidious disease that can damage your health, your relationships and your self-worth. It’s what happens when you compare yourself with others and in comparison, nothing you do is enough.

I’m not even a parent so I can’t imagine how much worse the disease gets when you have kids too. Fetchingly, Sarah Jessica Parker’s new movie I Don’t Know How She Does It is out in theaters as a preview to that life. I haven’t watched it yet. But I get the premise. The pressure for mothers trying to juggle everything perfectly, but never successfully.

Sadly, this is where we’re at as a society these days.

We’re moving away from “just enough” to “gotta do it all.”

I’ve never been one to embrace a fad, but this one somehow wormed its way into my psyche. That’s what happens when you spend too much time online and watching TV. Everyone else’s life looks perfect and yours always seems to be slipping through the cracks.

I’m pretty honest about my faults and my imperfections. Call it the gift that being an awkward teenager gave to me or growing up as a rebel where pretending to be perfect was the ideal. But who am I kidding? Isn’t this the life we all live these days?

As for me, I healed this insatiable disease by taking a much-needed break away, faraway from looming deadlines and impossible to fill pressures. I escaped into a little Snow White and the Seven Dwarves cottage in a not just inspiring, but awe-inspiring forest all the way in Mendocino.

I fell in love. I remembered who I was separate from what I did. I remembered to breathe. I remembered what it felt like to have a “home,” a real place where you can softly land after a stressful day.

My body felt healthy. I suddenly felt like I had been holding my breath for far too long. Nature felt like it was embracing me and it wouldn’t let me fall.

My inspiration returned.

My writing flowed.

If I could wrap up that place in a snow globe, I would. I’d take it out and shake it and feel the fresh air blowing my hair in my face and the healing sound of complete silence.

It reminded me that not enough-itis was the fairy tale. Not this place. This place was the truth. This is what I needed to take me out of the “I can’t tweet/blog/Facebook/comment on every single person’s inspiring blog” to save my life. But that’s okay. All I needed was to do what I was doing. Focus like a dog zooms in on his bone, with mindful attention and purpose. And never mind the distractions, the people doing this or that, the distance still not traveled.

It will be there tomorrow. But today. Today is for living and dreaming…

For more photos, check out my Etsy site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheInspiringBee

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February 21st, 2011

One GMDL Challenger Reports On Her Experience

Lisa Verdi is a woman with a business after my heart. It’s called MindfulBIZ and it’s all about helping creative entrepreneurs create a sustainable business through something we all could use some help with-designing a clutter free and focused website.

When she decided to take the Get More by Doing Less challenge I was pretty excited. Not only did she take the challenge, but she wrote down her experience here. Want to see if accomplishing less brought her more? Read her guest post below.


Confessions

One of my intentions for this year is to switch off from my business off when it’s time to pick up my kids from school.  I really love working on my business so much that it rarely feels like work, but I’ve noticed that I distract myself with busyness after my most productive time of the day is over. Far too often than I care to admit I’ll be checking my email or Twitter, catching up with the blogs that I follow or commenting on a business forum instead of being present with my family or making time for other activities I enjoy.


The Challenge

Brandi linked to a video about work-life balance and this message really resonated with me: you must take responsibility for setting the boundaries you want in your life.

I decided to give myself a challenge: unplug the computer between 3pm and 9am.

I was pretty good at meeting the challenge but there was one night when I turned on the computer after the kids were sleeping and my husband was late coming home from work. Plus Friday and Saturday nights were excluded from the challenge because that’s when my husband and I usually watch a movie on the computer.


The Uphill Battle

It took a few days to get into the new routine. The first morning of the challenge I definitely felt disorganized and lost. I ended up doing a lot of reading online instead of my tackling my to-do list in the morning. Throughout the week I noticed I would start to feel stressed in the early afternoon when I looked at the clock and thought that time was running out.  And just before 3pm I’d find myself rushing to squeeze in the last few tweets or emails. It always took me a while to relax after I shut down the computer.


The Result

I can honestly say that I felt more present with my kids after school. We did some activities together like shoveling show and reading a book or talking about their day at school. During the bedtime routine with my kids I was more relaxed because I wasn’t rushing to get back on the computer. I also stopped eating breakfast in front of the computer.

My house got a bit cleaner because I used the few minutes before 9am to put the dishes away or do some spot cleaning. Most nights I went to bed earlier than usual too.

I’m a big believer in the idea that letting go creates space for new ideas and opportunities. Before the challenge I had been too busy ”working” in the evening to see the bigger picture. I got real about how many extra hours the busyness added to my work week.

I thought about my ideal lifestyle and how many hours per week I will choose to work.

In The Big Leap (a book I finally finished during this challenge once I stopped “working” in the evenings!), Gay Hendricks presents the idea of Einstein Time. When you live in Einstein Time, YOU are the source of time so you can make as much of it as you want. Time is abundant. In contrast, the old paradigm is that there’s a finite amount of time. When you think there’s a scarcity of time, you always feel rushed or like you’re running out time as I experienced during the challenge. When you take ownership of time, you stop being a victim of time.

I’m still wrapping my mind around this concept, but it does seem to be the key to Doing Less and Getting More.  And I probably wouldn’t have discovered the idea if I hadn’t slowed down!

My next challenge is to notice how often I complain about time. Will you join me? See how often you think or say “I don’t have time to do that right now.” or “There aren’t enough hours in the day!” It’s the first step to taking ownership of time and MAKING it yours.

Isn’t that exciting?! I’m so happy for Lisa. If you find her as inspiring as I do and want to learn more about her and her business, you can check out her blog at MindfulBiz.com. Thanks again Lisa!

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