Last week I inadvertently over-booked myself. Besides my regular work load of blog posting, course teaching, content creation, clients, and the 5 teenagers in the house, I also had 2 birthday parties, 1 anniversary, 1 marketing meeting, 1 scheduled talk with book signing, and 1 teleconference. All to be followed up by 3 days of a surprise vacation getaway for Thad and my 3rd wedding anniversary. It was a challenging week for sure, and I would LOVE to say that I handled it all with perfect grace, but alas, my human side kicked in and I allowed myself to feel overwhelmed for a few tense moments. Thank goodness I was able to put it all into perspective, detach from outcomes, and decided to just give it my best! And happily it all worked out. The best part, I took away some knowledge in surviving chaos!
The 5 lessons I learned from over-booking myself:
1 A life lived frantically is no fun:
I truly do not know how people maintain a frantic pace for long periods of time. Running here and there, always trying to reach that next goal or milestone, and feeling like life is a marathon. Living frantically like that makes you miss the little things, the finer moments, and the people we care about. Living frantically means doing more but living less. Our life is about our relationships, but how could we possibly enjoy them if we don’t stop and make time to cultivate them? Step away from the next project for a while and spend some time with the people you love.
2 Just because you scheduled it, doesn’t mean you have to do it:
Being someone who is hell bent on always being “loyal and reliable,” I am not the type of person to back out of a commitment. However…. there are times when have to just apologize and excuse yourself from something you said you would do. It’s OK, people will forgive you! Most importantly, forgive yourself! We have all bitten off more than we could chew at some point. Admit that you are overwhelmed, or need help, and move on.
3 If you have to “schedule” sleep, you are doing too much:
Sleep, relaxation, eating, and personal wellness should never need to be on the schedule in order to be prioritized. These are things that should be done daily, without having to work them in to your schedule. Create a routine around them if you have to, but don’t skip them because you didn’t schedule them. You are absolutely nothing without your own wellness, take care of you, so you can take care of all the other “stuff!”
4 When you absolutely cannot slow down….. SLOW DOWN!
If you can’t, then you must. I didn’t say you have to stop, just slow down. If you are driving your car faster, and faster, and faster…. you will eventually either get stopped and ticketed, or you will run out of gas, or even worse, cause an accident. Your best work is not done while barreling through life at 100 miles per hour. Slow down, take a breath, enjoy the view, then move on.
5 Give yourself something to look forward to:
This past week was hard, but I am really grateful for the anniversary getaway at the end of it all. If you don’t give yourself something to look forward to, then it hardly seems worth it all. How many times have you set a new goal after reaching the last one without any celebration between the two? Give yourself something to look forward to by HONORING yourself and your accomplishment!
I hope you are avoiding chaos, but when you absolutely have to participate in it, at least be sure you can survive and come out on the other side to Live Inspired Now!
Heather Paris inspires people all over the world to create happier lives through talks, workshops, blog posts, and her book, Live Inspired Now; A Field Guide For Happiness. For more information about transforming your relationship, family, or your life, contact Heather today!
Today is the trifecta of phenomenon with the full moon happening on “Friday the 13th” during a “Mercury retrograde!” Yikes!? Should we head for the hills, or stay inside with doors and windows locked? Will the “crazy’s” be out in droves today? What does it all mean? Please, allow me to tell you what it means!
It means, you either make excuses or make a life! Today, like yesterday, you have the choice to go out and do something amazing with your day! Or you can do nothing, have a terrible day, and blame it all on the full moon, the unlucky day, or on the planet Mercury moving a little slower! Today, like every day, you are still in control of your actions, reactions, and interactions with other people. Act responsibly, react compassionately, and interact kindly. There is no natural phenomenon that gives people an excuse to be a jerk!
So, if people are acting like jerks, or being a little crazy, just smile and wish them well! Like all days, today is full of love, light, happiness, joy, and limitless opportunities for whatever you wish to experience! Stay focused on the positive, enjoy the day, and Live Inspired Now!
Heather Paris inspires people all over the world to create happier lives through talks, workshops, blog posts, and her book, Live Inspired Now; A Field Guide For Happiness. For more information about transforming your relationship, family, or your life, contact Heather today!
Maybe it really isn’t about the stress, chaos, or drama, rather it is about the way you carry it, or deal with it. Are you looking at all of your challenges with anger and resentment? What if you were to see them through the eyes of compassion, empowerment, or even detachment? Problems don’t have to break you! You know how you are supposed to “bend with your knees” and not your back when lifting something really heavy? When dealing with stressful situations, we need to remember that advice! We bend rather than break, and we use our strongest resources rather than constantly reaching for the easiest. It would be easy to just get angry all the time but that will eventually break us. Facing challenges with stronger tools such as compassion, or heart felt understanding isn’t always the easiest, but it is the best way to keep up from breaking!
Today, choose a better way to carry your burden until you can finally put it down, and Live Inspired Now!
Heather Paris inspires people all over the world to create happier lives through talks, workshops, blog posts, and her book, Live Inspired Now; A Field Guide For Happiness. For more information about transforming your relationship, family, or your life, contact Heather today!
Kids are born with everything they need to grow into confident, self-assured, well-rounded adults…. yet self-esteem is gravely lacking in our culture. Why? Because we teach kids to ignore everything they are naturally born with.
We teach them to seek approval rather than to self advocate. We teach them that their needs are less important than others. We teach them to compromise their own feelings. And worst of all, we teach them to self loathe by the examples we set.
We should not be teaching kids to get validation for their self-worth from a gold star sticker. They are good and worthy just because they exist, yet we teach them that their only worth is when the parents or teachers are pleased with them.
Then, we teach them to “share” their toys, and “be fair,” which is completely contrary to real life. Yes, we want to teach kids generosity and compassion, but not at the expense of their own feelings or happiness. You don’t share your house, car, or shiny new tractor with people, so don’t expect your child to share their favorite toy either. If it’s special, they may not want to share it. Teach them instead to share their time with others because THEY are what’s special… not the toy.
Things are not always “fair” in life, they aren’t supposed to be. Teaching kids to be “fair” is actually only training them to be “entitled!” Entitled kids grow up to think they deserve things, and that they shouldn’t have to work for what they have. They end up living in your basement when they are 30 with nothing but a million excuses as to why “life isn’t fair” and is holding them back!
And finally, we teach kids to self loathe because that is what we mirror for them. Kids are completely in love with themselves when they are small. They love to see themselves in mirrors, they make silly faces at themselves, they smile, laugh, and dance without a care in the world. They don’t care who is watching, nor do they care what anyone thinks. Until they see Mom or Dad become embarrassed, or Mom and Dad tells them to “stop because everyone is watching.” Or the child stands and watches Mom poke her own fat in the mirror and talk about how disgusting she is. Or the child hears Dad say “Keep your voice down, I don’t want anyone to think we are losers.” There are millions of examples of how we teach our kids to dim their own light. The best thing we can do to counteract this is to model better behavior. Kids will hate or love themselves, just as much as we do! Do them a favor and love yourself, respect yourself, hold yourself in much higher esteem!
Our society, in general doesn’t promote self-esteem. Isn’t it time for a change? Especially since we are already born with esteem and we go out of our way to wreck it! Let’s stop doing that! Let’s start to raise the standard of confidence, worth, respect, altruism, and self-esteem in our society! Let’s start by not removing these inherent traits in our young people. Let’s model good behavior, raise the standard, and Live Inspired Now!
Learn to raise healthy, happy, well adjusted kids who lead and succeed!! Join the Live Inspired Now Coach Training here!!
Heather Paris inspires people all over the world to create happier lives through talks, workshops, blog posts, and her book, Live Inspired Now; A Field Guide For Happiness. For more information about transforming your relationship, family, or your life, contact Heather today!
No matter how many times I see this picture, it ALWAYS inspires me! It reminds me that you just never know how close you are, so don’t give up! This week I started working out again. I am a little sore but feeling great about doing what I need to do to stay healthy and fit. The past few weeks I have been focusing on “lightening up.” Not physically lighter, but mentally. I have always had a tendency to strive for personal perfection, and in the past few years I have been working on not trying to be perfect, rather just trying to be me! But as we all know… old habits die-hard sometimes, so I am working on it again. Yes, it’s true, I am NOT perfect, nor should I try to be!
Even us coaches have to work on our own personal growth and development and I am working on remembering to go easy on myself. I don’t have to be a perfect parent, a perfect partner, or a perfect anything! I can just be me, and that is enough! Not only is it enough, it’s exceptional! Ahhh…. the relief of letting go and being free. Yesterday I posted this on Facebook: “Nobody expects you to be perfect, so stop expecting that of yourself!”
Don’t aim for perfection, just go for being yourself. Do the best you can and don’t give up because you are closer than you think, and Live INSPIRED now! (Notice I said INSPIRED, not perfect!)
Heather Paris inspires people all over the world to create happier lives through talks, workshops, blog posts, and her book, Live Inspired Now; A Field Guide For Happiness. For more information about transforming your relationship, family, or your life, contact Heather today!