Mindset Monday.Stop in the Name of (Self) Love

By Jackie White

The hustle and bustle of everyday life and the busyness of busy can encompass you to a point where you feel you are living in constant chaos. It's draining. It’s unfulfilling. It’s exhausting. So why do so many of us still do it? Maybe it’s now a bad habit? You have become so entrenched in the stickiness of it all that you don’t know where to start to end the chasing of each day. Today, I want you to stop in the name of self-love and make the choice that you will stop allowing your busyness to take over your life. 

How Will You Experience Life?
Start fresh with a new point of view. Each day you are given 24 hours to experience life. How you experience life has a lot to do with how you manage yourself. When you allow appointments, errands, favors, work, and/or social media to take up your gift of time, you are creating a negative and stressful experience. You in effect, have prioritized all of those things over that which likely you would deem the important stuff in life. Stuff like relationships, love, fun, joy, happiness, and YOU!

Stop the Insanity!
To stop the craziness and step off the hamster wheel, you need to give yourself a moment of peace to decide how you want to spend your time each day. It all begins with a slice of time you give yourself to clear your mind and think about what’s really important. Take a moment right now to schedule an hour with yourself to have a frank discussion with yourself on what is really important. This time needs to be uninterrupted, so set it aside with the parameters that someone else is watching the kids, the phone is put away and so are other distractions.

Where DOES the Time Go?
This is a great time of the year to do this because you can see what has been taking up your precious time. You can ascertain if what you are focusing on is what you really want to focus on. In order to be real about how you spend your time, you need to track your time. I know that sounds like a pain, but if you even track for a day or two, it will become apparent what’s going on. Pay attention to how and what you are spending time on for yourself.

One Beer, Two Beers, Twelve Beers
You get your head around how much time you are actually online. It’s sort of like a drunk who says they only had two beers when in reality it was 12 beers. We undercut how much time we are letting be sucked from our lives into our screens. So, if you are going to turn this around, you have to accurately account for all the things. Another miscalculation many make is they overestimate how much they actually are working. So, keep yourself honest.

What Really Are Your Priorities?
Take time to decide what is really important in your life. Are you spending quality time with the kids? Is your spouse taking a backseat? Are you volunteering for others and can’t find time for yourself? This needs saying even though it might seem obvious, um, YOU are a priority too!

It’s All In Your Mind
As for the current situation, 2020 was a big crap sandwich, so let’s realize that as we turn the calendar, the world isn’t going to magically be better, ah, but we can be. That starts with your mindset. Making decisions to be happy, positive, productive, intentional, and mindful are decisions you should make. Importantly, you also need to be a self-advocate. That means, you count too and you deserve to be a priority. All of these things will have a huge impact on how you experience life daily. Choose wisely.

Set Your Intentions
Once you have tracked your time at least for a day or so, and you have set your mind straight about what it takes to have the best life experience, it is now time for your re-imagined life to start. Begin with the priorities, schedule them in, but remember you are a default priority, so get yourself on that list too.

The Life of Your Dreams
The life of your dreams can be yours if you slow down and take some time to assess, refocus, and choose to be intentional with your time. Choose to get yourself on the list because you can hardly have a happy life experience if you don’t start with loving yourself.

Shine on!