With increasingly busy schedules, are we making time to ‘check-in’ with the most important person in our lives?
Have you noticed that life just seems to be getting busier? There are more people demanding our time and attention, deadlines loom and goals need to be reached. We need to juggle work, family, home and other commitments. We live in an age where, due to technological advances, we are expected to always be available — or had better have a good explanation for not responding to an instant message.
Think for a moment about how you prioritise important people or important appointments in your diary. We manage to juggle things around and make a few sacrifices to accommodate so-called important appointments. However, in accommodating others, we often neglect to ‘check-in’ with ourselves — to reflect on how we are actually coping, what we are struggling with and what beneficial changes we need to make. It somehow feels easier to just keep going. But at some point, burnout is inevitable.
A beneficial way to keep track of your life is to schedule an appoinment with yourself — one that you would treat as any other important appointment. Choose a day and time that works for you. Minimise distractions — you are, after all, meeting with a very important person, and should not be disrupted!
The purpose of such an appointment is to reflect on how you are doing in the different areas of your life (e.g. career, family, marriage, health, etc.). During this time, reflect on questions such as:
- How am I feeling in different areas of my life?
- Would I feel happier if I had additional help in any of these areas? If so, think about the type of assistance you could acquire that would simplify your life.
- Am I on track with goals I’ve set? Or do I need to redefine some goals?
- What beneficial changes do I need to make? E.g. improve on nutrition & eating habits or more quality time with the family.
- Am I starting to feel resentment in any relationship?
- Am I using my time efficiently? Look out for any time-wasters and consider if this time could be allocated more beneficially.
- Am I asserting myself enough?
- Am I being kind to myself?
We often get stuck in our daily run, without stopping to consider the impact on our physical and emotional well-being. Start treating yourself like you are the most important person in your life — because you are! Schedule your appointments. Make them non-negotiable. It’s almost like a pit-stop on a racing circuit to ensure that it is safe to get going again.
Respect yourself enough to schedule the appointment, because if you don’t something else will always come up.
Originally published at medium.com