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Happiness is Taking Time for You

Happiness is taking time for you and only you hold the key. I often long for a slower life with some me time. It may sound selfish but I am sure you find yourself sometimes feeling the exact same way. However I know the feeling of having too many demands for my time. The list is long and many of us have jobs we are paid for but we also have many jobs that do not pay, well at least not in dollars. We are wives, mothers, daughters and good friends. We are family nurses, the family chauffeur, cheerleaders for our children, family personal shoppers, family chefs, entertainers and party planners. We are family councilors and teachers when school lets out. We are family motivators, coaches, family CFO(s), appointment schedulers and yes the maid. We are laundry attendants, pet care sitters, booboo kissers, tear wipers, butt wipers and often find ourselves butt kissing to keep family peace.

I had the opportunity to take a class about getting organized and if you know me at all I needed it. Well actually I am so unorganized I should have splurged for some hypnosis for my problem instead of taking a class. But I took something away from that class that was far more important than “How to Get Organized”. To me it was more like a lesson on happiness is taking time out for yourself. In class we were given a blank piece of paper with 24 blocks on it representing the 24 hours in a day. We were told that as women we actually schedule ourselves a 37-hour day. I secretly thought to myself “Sure ok, I am busy but this is ridiculous”. We were instructed to fill in the blanks beginning with the hours we sleep. Well I sleep 5-6 hours a night so hey I am already ahead right? We continued to fill the boxes with hours at our jobs, hours for the commute to work, hours for care of our children, meal preparation and all of our other must do’s, well you get the picture.

After we all dutifully filled in our squares a few of us had 5 blocks remaining empty, which indicated 5 hours left in the day. A majority of the class had only 2 or 3 squares left and I had two. I was in shock! No wonder at times I feel a bit overwhelmed!  What about time with my husband, time with my parents, time with my friends and taking care of my dogs? I hadn’t even factored those in but hey I had 2 hours left. Hold on what about time for me?????? The instructor told us that in order to find time to do the things we love we could shave an hour off of our sleep schedule. I thought there has to be a better way.

After the class I determined that if I cannot survive on less sleep I guess time for me is OUT! Wait a minute many families survive on one income especially in these tough economic times, so I should consider it a blessing that I have the time and energy to be able to work for myself because it truly is for me. Each day I choose to do it, and I love it because I love helping others feel more confident and inspired. We all hold the power to make decisions with regards to our time. I guess it simply comes down to perspective, you choose how to view your life, what is in it and what is not. If happiness is taking time for you then I recommend that you fill in your own 24 blocks to evaluate your time so you can find some space for you. Your time, your life and you only have one so make it count.