Running, Cupcakes and Life-Coaching: Be Realistic and Ask for Help

You guys! I’m absolutely loving this little series I’ve got going on.  It forces me to really think about what my actual keys to success are.  I read tons of articles and pieces of advice about getting more done and time management.  While their tips sound nice, they aren’t always the most practical.

If you haven’t been reading, check out:

Where to Start

Striving for Perfection and Planning Ahead

Learning to Shut Off

Today’s post is quite timely for me.  I started on it last week, but after feeling really tired and under the weather, I’ve been going to bed early and sleeping in.  Whatever my body is fighting is taking a little toll on me, so the extras (like this blog post) got set aside.  Taking care of yourself should always be priority #1.

BE REALISTIC AND ASK FOR HELP…

These skills do not come naturally to me.  I am a terrible delegator because I want to make sure everything gets done perfectly.  I don’t like to ask for help because I don’t want to bother anyone.  And I always say yes because I’m a people pleaser.

I feel like I can do it all and I suppose that I can, but burnout happens.

So let’s talk about being realistic.  There are 168 hours in a week.  40 of those hours are spent working (most people work a little more but we’ll run with it) and 56 hours are spent sleeping (in an ideal world). So we are left with 72 hours to eat, clean, workout, spend time with family, commute and blog (or whatever floats your boat).

If you work full time, have a spouse, child, dog or hobbies, your time is probably pretty short already.  Let’s say you are like me and want to do some freelance design.  You take on one job that will take a couple weeks to complete.  Then another job comes up simultaneously and you have to say yes because it is a great opportunity.

What happens if you get sick?  Or have a family emergency? Or have to work late a few days?  Suddenly your evenings/weekends aren’t free to tackle these projects, you stay up late every night working and you and your spouse end up totally burned out.

Be realistic.  Say no.  Push something off for a week or two.  Leave downtime, sufficient sleep time, time to exercise and time with your family in your schedule.  Maybe one day this week you end up skipping Jeopardy or your workout to make a deadline.  Oh well.  Shit happens.  But if you have left enough room in your schedule, it doesn’t have to happen every day.

And let’s say you don’t leave any room and you find yourself so slammed and stressed out…

ASK FOR HELP.

Ask a friend to come over and help you tidy your house.  I’ve done it.  Many friends are happy to lend a hand every once in a while.  Ask your spouse, kids, parents to lend a hand with household tasks.  Doing things together is more fun anyway.

Do you have a friend that wants to get into design (0r blogging or whatever you do)?  Maybe they already have some skills and you can send a little work their way…  Outsource, my friends! Pay them in money, credit for their work or more work down the road.

LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES

Ok…you bit off more than you could chew last month.  You gained five pounds, your house is messy and you feel fried.

Take a day off and decompress.  Apologize to your spouse and let them know you learned your lesson (I have had to do this numerous times).  Get your house back in order-a house in disarray can a have a very negative impact on your mental state.  And reflect.  Be better this month.  Say yes to less.  Plan ahead more.

We are human.  We make mistakes. We have limits.  But we also evolve. We get smarter and better.

Use your mistakes to grow and soon enough you will notice how far you have come.

And if you haven’t seen it, watch this video.  We all could use a pep talk.

Happy Thursday everyone! Tomorrow is Friday.  Remember that… all day.

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