I know you have a busy life. How badly do you really want relief and productivity? Now, those are not necessarily the same, but they kind of are the same. I hear, “I want relief and I want to be productive”. Relief and stress relief from that relentless To-Do list, and relief from being busy all the time.
Here’s the truth. You’re too busy for that. You’re too busy to do things needed so that you get the relief you desire. There’s a pretty cool book that I’ve been made aware of lately called The Art of Reflection – a whole entire book dedicated to a powerful strategy: to stop, sit back, and observe. Then, change course a little at a time.
Why is it important to REFLECT when you are seeking to be more productive and have stress relief?
- An object in motion stays in motion. Ah, yes. AND…is it the right motion? When there’s no rest, it’s no good. So the object in motion stays in motion when it’s not in rest, it’s no good. And you know what happens? The cortisol stresses us out. It motivates us, sure, but it also stresses us out when there’s too much cortisol because we haven’t stopped to reflect.
- Your energy is finite…sort of.
- There are four energy systems in our body. The first is the energy hog. That’s the sympathetic nervous system: fight, flight or freeze. When we’re busy all the time we’re feeling productive, but we’re not really that productive. The sympathetic nervous system is taking up all the space (dopamine, anyone?) and it’s not leaving space for the other three nervous systems in our body.
- The immune system. When you have too much stress, you might get sick. This sickness is not just related to germs, it’s also because your energy is taken up by the energy hog.
- The cell replenishment system that keeps us young-ish. My mother used to always say that we made her get gray; that we stressed her out.
- The energy system. You actually need to have an energy reserve so that your body can create more energy.
That is why the art of reflection, and taking a step back is so important. It’s because an object in motion, stays in motion and because there’s only four systems in your body, and when they’re all taken up by sympathetic, no bueno.
OK Great. You may now ask, what can be done?
Well, you can read the book. I haven’t read that book, so I’ll give you my solution. I have a couple of forms, a morning form and an evening form which bookend the day.
In the morning you ask yourself “What am I going to do today?” Now, do not do a hundred things! There’s very small amounts that you are allowed to put on the form because we don’t want the giant to-do list that never ends and only gets added to!
In the evening these forms help us to reflect, for example “Oh, wow, that didn’t work out so well. What will I do differently?” or “Rock on. I did it. I did it. Yay. I said I’d do this and I did it all right?” Rinse and repeat. How many times have you gone out and bought organizing folders or organizing bins, but then your house still miraculously doesn’t get organized and cleaned?
In conclusion, now you have the WHY and the WHAT.
Why do this (you need to watch your energy!)
What can you do? Reflect!
Now, the HOW. How will you actually act on this? I can help!
- Come to your FREE community called UnscatterMe – a confidential, smallish online group to share wins and strategies
- Come to my free training and coaching every month called Wisdom Warriors. The next Wisdom Warriors is November 6th, and it’s from 12pm to 1pm Eastern Time.
What do YOU want for YOU?
I don’t want you to feel like you just don’t have any time for yourself, as then you become sick and you get gray prematurely. If we don’t take some time and reflect and make those conscious choices sooner or later, the universe hits you with a two by four. You get sick. You wind up with bad situations. Then you feel worse.
It’s time to turn this around. Before it is too late and there is so much more to do, getting out of the hole.
Come to Wisdom Warriors 11/6.
Comment below: what you are cutting out this week??
I am here for you.