There’s only one way to do something, right?
Um, wrong!
I know you all know this already… but there is ALWAYS more than one way to do something.
Take for example, your schedule. I bet that if you’re anything like me, and if you’ve had anything like the day I’ve had (or, to be honest, the day I am HAVING… as I literally am just sitting down to get some work done – and the interruptions. just. keep. coming.) you’ve had to rearrange your schedule.
To set the scene, it’s now after 5:00pm. When the majority of the world is just ending their work-day, I am just now getting mine started. I’m not generally one to follow the “norm,” especially as an entrepreneur, but sometimes I compare perspectives and this is one of those moments.
Yes, I make my own schedule and yes, I am fully in charge of my choices, and yes, I’m blessed to be able to have those options. However, I can still get sucked-in to a momentary lapse of… victim mentality!
You thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you? A little Pink Floyd anyone?
I digress…
And, as I was saying…
I have two words for today: Frazzled Flexibility!
We started with a two hour delayed start for schools because of snow. I will say, it was quite beautiful last night (and a tad eerie driving home on the freeway). However, that meant rearranging my entire day.
Ever been there? Yeah, it’s kind of that love/hate thing, right?
On one hand it’s nice to turn off the alarm and not have to pop right up out of bed. On the other hand, laying there doesn’t do any good because first off I feel lazy (self-talk blah blah blah) and second, in my head I’m trying to figure out what my day is going to look like now that everything I had scheduled just got thrown up in the air like a game of 52-card pick-up.
Fast forward through my first cup of coffee, being half-dressed with at least a bra on but still in my jammie bottoms (which to my credit are simply black leggings), and I think I’ve solved the schedule puzzle.
It really is a giant jigsaw puzzle, isn’t it?
I’m feeling pretty good at this point because I have successfully managed to reschedule a connection call to next week, bump my 10:00am pilates class to 1:00pm, change my classroom volunteer time to 11:00am instead of my usual 1:00pm, make myself available to pick up kid #1 and his friend from middle school so they don’t have to walk home in the snow (not like it would kill them!), and still be back to elementary school to pick up kid #2 in plenty of time.
Phew!
So… what’s to be all frazzled about, right? It will all work out. I kept my priorities (pilates and volunteering) and bumped what wasn’t crucial (the connection call). This is the teaching point here, in case you missed it.
When our schedule HAS to shift, the priorities come first and everything else has permission to be bumped. Now, we have to know what our priorities ARE in order to make the proper decisions… and that’s a whole other conversation.
The part of my priorities that you’re not seeing as a timed appointment is my Me-Time. It’s what happens first thing in the morning (after I pee, drink some water, grab my coffee…. you know, in case you wanted ALL the details – apologies if that’s TMI).
I could have still kept that sacred as the first ritual of the day, but I knew that I needed to get on my schedule rearranging first, otherwise I would not be present to be with God. I usually sit in my chair, cozied up with a blanket, a pillow to rest my book / iPad / phone on and my coffee. I do my daily devotionals (I’m a huge fan and admittedly an addict of the You Version bible app).
Nothing happens in my day until I’ve had my Me-Time.
Except on days like today. The motto for today: flexibility!
I had to renegotiate with myself to push off that sacred time. I had to renegotiate with a lot of people today. I had to think, how else can I do my day? And it all worked out, including having a few hours of work-time this afternoon. So again, why the frazzled feeling? Why am I JUST NOW sitting down to work? (and by “NOW” I mean a good hour later than when I started writing this because – you guessed it – interruptions).
The frazzled feeling comes from having good intentions and then the curve ball called life gets chucked right at your chest. Ugh! It smacks you. Takes the breath right out of you. You’re out of your routine, out of the easiness of your day, forced to think on your feet and improvise.
As I reflect now in a semi-quiet moment (spa radio on Pandora, sauvignon blanc in my glass, both boys in the bathroom going… um… number two – take your time boys, take your time!) I realize I never had that quiet moment this morning.
Everyone was up, we had an extra friend who needed a place to be before and a ride to school because of the delayed start, and then when the older boys left for school, kid #2 had a different friend over (also due to snow delay), and it has just been constant all day long.
Literally, I have had five minutes of alone quiet time this entire day. I know, I know, for some of you that’s like gold – you’d give anything to have a whole five minutes! I get it.
My day usually STARTS with that. So when I don’t get it until 5’oclock… I’m like that crazy emoji. (I didn’t tell you that we also picked up a third friend on the way home from school this afternoon, so at one point I had four screaming boys inside – hence the earlier than usual wine o’clock… and the derailed plan to get some work done this afternoon).
I realized that putting my Me-Time off doesn’t work for me. I know that. I truly know better, but I thought that it might work today. I had either a house full or a classroom full or a studio full of people around me constantly today. I would have been much better equipped if I had secluded myself sooner than later – even if just for those five precious moments. Are you seeing the lesson here too? Don’t bump your Me-Time!
My point… we have to know our priorities and we have to be willing to move. To move our calendar around, to move our expectations, to move with the flow of life.
Flexibility – the ability to adapt and do things differently. Even when that “thing” is doing our day differently. There’s more than one way to get done what needs to and what we want to get done.
And… we have to, like I mean etched in stone HAVE TO, put ourselves first every day, no matter what. Everything else can move around. Everything else can move around that sacred time – the Me-Time – but we cannot sacrifice it or think that we’ll just fit it in later.
So yes, there is more than one way to do, well, most everything. I encourage you to find the way that works for you in each different moment when and if you need to. I also encourage you to have one priority, if nothing else is, and that is your Me-Time FIRST.
Here’s to the BEST Version of You!
