"There is never enough time, unless you're serving it." -Malcolm Forbes (1919 - 1990)My son is 17 months old. (OK, all you seasoned parents out there, stop laughing!) I work full time, commute an hour to work each day, cook most meals, attempt other household chores and try to carve out a small amount of time for myself and my partner each day. Did I mention
2 dogs and 5 cats? I understand lack of time. In today's fast-paced, technology driven world, most of us feel stressed at not having enough time in each day to do what needs to be done. For parents, this pressure can be overwhelming. Not only are we trying to conduct our own lives in a manner that Oprah would be proud of (eating healthy, exercising daily, living our best life), and building relationships that even Dr. Phil couldn't find fault with, but we're also attempting to raise healthy, happy, well-adjusted children in a world that most often seems in direct opposition to those ideals. Where do we find time for family, work, personal development, chores of daily living, oh, and sleep? The truth is, many of us don't. We do "have to's", an occasional "want to" and feel guilty about not doing rest.
Focus on Your Accomplishments It seems to be human nature to beat ourselves up over things we didn't get done, or didn't do as well as we'd hoped. These negative thoughts do nothing to improve your life. Instead of lying in bed at night frustrated over mountain of work left undone, reflect on things you did do. They don't have to be big things, even little things add up, and indeed, probably did add up to comprise biggest portion of your day. A list might include:
made sure kids ate breakfast fed dog locked front door returned an important phone call started a report filled car with gas noticed that your child's picture had a great-looking tree in it wiped off kitchen counter made macaroni and cheese for dinner let dog outside before he peed on carpet
You accomplished hundreds of things today, and probably did them all well. There is no use in poisoning way you feel about yourself by focusing on things you did not get around to today.
Let Go of Guilt This may sound strange, but guilt is selfish. It takes away time and energy from you, your family, and other priorities. Know that you are making best decisions you know how to make, and are doing best you know how to do at any given moment, and allow yourself to feel good about those facts. Release yourself from grip of guilt and allow positive feelings to take its place. As you start feeling better about yourself and less guilty, you may even find you have some extra energy at end of day or an extra smile for your child.
