~:[CH8 - Day 239]:~ A Shell of Oneself

~:[CH8 - Day 239]:~ A Shell of Oneself 

It happens to easily and all too often. You work hard trying to achieve a goal and you fall short, you fall in love and have your heart broken, or you spend too much time stressing out and work yourself into the ground. You often can find yourself veering off path. You head in a direction that you don't want to head. An injury or illness, stress, a death of a family member or friend or some type of failure. Sometimes things go well, but you spend entirely too much time trying to maintain that performance. It's easily to become that shadow and that shell. You can easily find yourself going through the motions, emotionless and without that passion you once had. Where did it all go? As I worked tirelessly through the day and through the night. I went from one checklist item to another. I designed the bibs, made the buttons, sent out e-mails, clarified this and that, organized files, printed more, checked through rosters, go through practices and plan and plan again. There is always something to do when a big event is coming up and when you have a string of them coming, it's not easy to take care of. Then an unreasonable e-mail that just throws you back off course when  you felt like you had focused in. I often get the question, how do you do it and how do you stay focused. One is efficiency. You use the most of your time and try not to waste any of it. You plan out the order of how you will do things and how you will save the most time. You stack up your resources so they'll always be ready and you'll never run out, which may cause a delay. Plan for the worst as you must assume that everything will fall through so you figure out, what will I do if it fails. However, the biggest way I avoid becoming that shell of myself is that I leave time for myself. As much as someone may want me to give them information, I don't forget to write my blog or poetry, I don't forget to message my friends, I don't forget to save a little time to unwind by watching Kdramas or sitting down with a friend over a drink or a meal. We have a lot of responsibilities in life and a lot of things we need to do, but why do we do all these things? We do them to have a better life and without taking the time to care for ourselves, all the success we achieve will be worthless. Be efficient and don't waste time, but spending time on re-energizing yourself with a little music or good company is not a waste as all. We need our social lives just as much as we need to be productive, we need our time of tranquility, just as much as we need to prepare for the next meeting, and we need to live and love, just as much as we need to reach that next deadline. There's a lot on my plate, but while I am at it, I make sure that I put the things I like on that plate, otherwise, I fill myself with nothing really, which will set me down that path of becoming that shell. Life may never get easier, but it doesn't mean that we cannot enjoy what life has to offer. Work hard, but play even harder.