I know I'm not alone in the great challenge of balancing a million roles on a day to day basis. I have blogged about it before. There is some comfort in knowing that every person who reads this faces the same issue: how to find the time to get everything done we need to get done while at the same time enjoying life.
The tasks can change. In fact, they usually do as time passes. Students face the challenge of finding time to learn, study, work, socialize, and see their parents. New workers face the challenge of getting up early to get to a new job, working a full day, and still finding time to be with friends. Young couples balance each of their jobs, try to keep a home, find time for romance, and have some fun. Don't forget about becoming a new parent! All of a sudden, life before probably seems like it was a party. How in the world do you find time for a new human being amongst everything else?
Yes, how does one find time to be a couple (if in a relationship), a parent, a worker or business owner, a housekeeper, a valuable edition to society, a friend, and still nurture oneself? To say it is a challenge seems minuscule compared to the difficultly of achieving a good balance.
The truth? We never get there. Remember that old saying "Life is not a destination, it is the stops along the way" or something like that? That, my friends, is the secret. Not one of us will ever be great at everything we so badly want to be great at. None of us will always be great at even one thing. Nope. Never.
Accepting that will take a lot of pressure off of you. Understanding it will free you to enjoy the stops along the way. I have a book to edit, a blog to keep current, suggestions to message an author friend, a grandson to babysit and nurture, a new genre I want to try writing, painting to do for my soul, exercise to do, a four bedroom home my husband and I struggle to keep up with now that we are getting older, friends that I enjoy being with if only I can find the time, and a sex life with my partner that I would like to keep from being nonexistent. I will never succeed at doing all of those things as well as I would like to.
Instead, every day I will make only a few a priority We must begin the day with a fresh outlook on life and embrace the moment. Right now, I have time to blog. Earlier, I exercised. Edited a bit. When Gideon comes in 45 minutes, I will let everything else move to the background and give him my full attention. I can be the best I can possibly be only if I am fully present at whatever thing I am currently doing. Multitasking has its place, but it has been way overrated. It's too easy to always multitask, thinking it's most important to get as much done as possible. In the meantime, you aren't even enjoying being alive. You're simply doing. Not living.
I am fully convinced that I am better off when I don't multi-task. I don't want my days, weeks, months, years, and life to be measured by how much I got done. I want them measured by how much I lived, and how much I made a difference to others. I can't do that if I don't give each task my complete attention.
Too many young people don't understand that. I pray that at some point they learn that faster is not better, that doing six things at half attention will never give them the same sense of satisfaction as doing one thing at a time at full attention.
See, it's your life. You either live it, or you can task through it, not realizing that it's passing you by. I want to know I fully drank of life by the time I am done. It that means my house is dirty, or my hair is flat, or I forget to get something done, to hell with it. What I will do is enjoy the people in my life and make sure that I take care of my mental, emotional, and physical needs, so that I can be worthwhile to others.
I'm only human. And being human is something worth being fully present for. Enjoy it. It will be over before you know it.
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