I started this blog excited to be pursuing my creative urge to write, study, photograph, and share. I still am excited about it, but life keeps getting in the way and I haven’t been able to post as often as I would’ve liked. I know that we all only have 24 hours a day. I know that I need 9 hours of sleep a night and that I have a lot of responsibilities. But instead of taking things OFF of my plate, I feel like I just keep ADDING new things on to an already full load. And I’m sure I’m not alone.
Earlier this year I wrote a post about time management and a practice I had been doing to make sure that I kept my life in check with what was important to me. Unlike my other posts, I went back to it many times. I edited it and changed it and finally just decided not to post it as it wasn’t in my voice and it didn’t seem to fit in.
And then I abandoned that practice.
I stopped intentionally looking at how I spent my time and instead kept filling it up and up and up and up until I hit overwhelm and had to step back and examine how best to move forward.
What actually happened was an old major love of mine (the sport of beach tennis!), came back into my life after having been done for 10 years. Suddenly I could play again and had a Pro Tour and ANOC World Beach Games to train for. I upped my fitness time and began training on court and in the gym, traveling to tournaments and promoting and organizing a “new” sport. Meanwhile I still had my already busy life as mom, wife, friend, board member, volunteer, writer, etc. It’s no wonder things got hectic as I tried to fit in way more than I had time for.
But the truth is I am still struggling to choose what it is that I want to focus on and prioritize. I still want to dedicate myself to my kids, to my husband, to my blog, to my sport, to my community. But I really cannot do it all. I definitely cannot do it all to the level that I would want to. So, what do I do? How do I move forward? I guess I’d say I need to prioritize, but that sounds so uninspiring! I am thankful that I have so many fun things calling to me, but I need to be real with myself about what is most important to me right now.
Which ironically goes back to my old practice of intentionally planning my time around my values and priorities. Looks like I need to reread my old post and see what I think of it now! And then write a new one to share what I learned from giving up that practice and starting it again.
The funny, not so funny, thing is, I remember thinking and writing that life is wild and keeps on throwing things at us all the time. If we don’t stop to think about what is important to us we can get off track just doing what shows up, instead of actively creating the life we want to live by design.
So back to the drawing board! Stay tuned…. More to come.
PS- Before posting this entry, I actually edited and posted my original article on intentional living called How to Fill Your Life with What’s Important to You. If you missed it, you can find it HERE. Meanwhile I have been re-evaluating my priorities and planning my time again according to the post!
Here are some helpful questions you can use to help you journal/brainstorm what you want to create in your life:
What’s Most Important to you?
What do you do (how do you spend your time and free time)?
What do you want to do more of?
What do you want to do less of?
What are some things you would like to plan in to create your intentionally-designed life?
