Embrace these tips and hit the pillow feeling upbeat about your day
- Balance Schmalance. You’ll never feel balanced as long as you have goals and dreams. Instead, look at how “balanced” your life is over a period of time, not a specific day of the week.
- Good is good enough. Stop wasting time creating the “perfect” proposal, letter or centerpiece. Stop at 80% and move on to the next task. Nobody notices the difference but you.
- They’re called Happy Meals for a reason. Every so often choose take-out (healthy choices do exist). It buys you an extra half hour to sit down and share your day with family.
- Scale back on drive time. When choosing a new doctor, dentist, hair dresser, dry cleaner, masseuse, florist, etc. find one as close to home as possible. The same holds true when finding activities for any family members – stay local.
- Say No more often. Life does go on even if you aren’t involved in every activity, party or event. Being missed can make you more interesting and appreciated when you do show up.
- Too blessed to be stressed. It’s impossible to feel stress and be grateful at the same time. When you’re on overwhelm, simply take a deep breath and count your blessings – works every time.
- Power “Off” The quickest way to gain downtime is to turn off the phone, TV and computer. Enjoy the lack of distraction.
- Get Realistic. Unless you have full-time help (cook, cleaner, personal assistant), you’re always going to have an incomplete “to do” list. Focus instead on what you did accomplish and hit the pillow feeling upbeat about your day.
- The More the Messier. When I flew solo in my cream condo the remote stayed in the same spot, pillows were strategically placed, and countertops were void of dishes. Now that I share my life with a husband and kids, the opposite is true. Embrace the messiness – it comes with the territory.
- Grab a Girlfriend and Go! Schedule time away (long lunch or long weekend) with someone who makes you laugh out loud. No excuses needed, just go. Everyone and everything will survive without you, and you’ll remember what it feels like to be 19 again. If you need an incentive to ditch, add up all the hours men spend watching, playing or talking about sports. Let’s go!
Most importantly, stop comparing yourself to individuals who “appear” to have it all together. Appearances can be deceiving. Do what works for you – that’s the best advice of all.
