Making time for yourself
Traditionally, I'm a "workaholic", I suppose.
I'm the type of person who pushes, pushes, pushes. I don't sleep much, I want to be good at everything and I have a really strong sense of responsibility and commitment. I work at being as good as I can be at everything that I do.
What I've learned over the years though, is that sometimes, by wanting to do well at everything, I forget to do well at making time for myself. I forget to stop and spend time really thinking about how I can direct my energies most effectively and in the best alignment with my goals.
Although I've been getting better at doing that, it's time that I allocate more of my time to that endeavor. I'm down in San Diego visiting friends for a few days for just this reason: to disconnect and be more proactive about thinking through where I'm going and what I want to do. You can expect to see more of that in my posts in the coming weeks/months and hopefully, you'll also see some more progress being made on how I'm chasing after the things that I want out of life.
How about you folks - how good are you at making time for yourself? How do you choose to do it?
Everything comes down to your ability to define well your goal in life. If your goal is to succeed at variety of different things then the time you put into this plan is the time you are making for yourself, the time you are perfecting yourself. However, during your race for perfection, your vision of the finish line can change, and can change significantly due to new personal experiences and external influences. The realization that the new finish line might be another thousand miles away or worse, is long passed without a return route, is what shrugs even the most determined individuals. That is why timely re-evaluation of your goals, once you took off on a race, is a must to ensure you don’t loose track of your finish line and, thus, yourself.
Don’t know how good I’ve become at the “re-evaluation periods,” occasional meditation helps me to steer clear. Usually critical events in one’s life are the main drivers for re-evaluation of his or her goals and can force extreme actions towards new goals; unfortunately, some of them can be too late.
Your entry reminded of my two livejournal posts from three years ago; they are reflections on my (rather intense) meditation experiences at that time:
http://asyanya.livejournal.com/2764.html
http://asyanya.livejournal.com/2892.html
Posted by: Asiya | July 31, 2007 at 11:43 PM