Today’s society is all about the hustle and taken part in others hustle, but we rarely find the time to pause. We are infatuated with the idea of doing more with less time. The ability to be still in a constantly moving world is a difficult yet rewarding task. Acknowledging when your cup has run over is a little skill that we all need to acquire. Being able to juggle it all sometimes causes more damage and you will find yourself spiraling out of control and there will be nothing left of your hustle but a mess. It’s now time to blow the whistle and yell timeout.
We all come equipped with instructions, personal instructions and warning signs that alert us when to calm and let the universe do it’s thing. How many of us actually listen to them? I would take a wild guess and say about 15% of my Facebook friend list listens to the signs and the rest keep up the increasing tension of juggling it all until it’s to late. Its always alright to listen to the signals and break. When we become so consumed with managing it all we trigger our stress, fatigue, and drain our mental sharpness. We are actually decreasing our successful completion of task and losing our concentration. Think about it; have you ever crammed for a test and you stayed up all night to study. Your thoughts were focused on the task, but you were eager to just pass the test. Your mind was subconsciously thinking about the sleep after the test and the reward of a average passing grade. The action of achievement and retention are not important and the ultimate goal is just completion then sleep. We believe that doing it all will be rewarding, but we have tricked our thoughts into believing that we can juggle it all and timeouts are for the unsuccessful. Not true!
Our bodies and minds need breaks and the human thoughts tell us that taking breaks create a lack of productivity. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that frequent, short breaks did not affect ones ability to be productive. So why can’t we just break when our bodies scream timeout. I think I know why, because we just want to GO, GO, GO until we reach every last single goal for our life even if its met with stress, anxiety, worry, and exhaustion. Listening to your signals is healthy especially for those of you like me who wear many hats. We are the people who are quick to take on more and in the end are left feeling wore out. You must know when to react and find techniques that will help energize your timeout and maintain your mental sanity.
mOOdees techniques of Breaking:
1. Maintain a visual calendar – this keeps you focused and organized. Its like a day by day play book. I know I’m taking to much if a days blocking is reaching is breaking point. That means no more can happen that day and someone has to be told “no”. Keep in mind that “no” is a complete sentence and there are 365 days in a year; you will get it done.
2. Vision boards – we are constantly on the hunt for a new goal; something else to achieve for our personal trophy cases. Creating a vision board places purpose to your actions. It helps you develop the end result and sets a beautiful reminder of what what you need to do. Its helpful and will help with the hustle. (Tip: I timeout and look at my vision board daily as a way to clear the fog and refocus my vision).
3. Leaving the work @ work – Too many times we are totally consumed with work and the completion of a task. What we don’t accomplish at the work place soon becomes our at home work. Leave all that consumes you from 9 to 5 at the 9 to 5. My motto is the work clock stops at 4pm and I don’t get paid for anything I do after that. Develop a To Do list for work and use that as a way to set priority to tasks. No more work at home.
4. Listening to music – Its been said that music is good for the soul. I had found music to be therapeutic during high levels of stress. Music provides us a way to escape as well as a way to completely break away from reality and lose ourselves in the lyrics and melodies of the song. This ability to use music as a way to totally eliminate the care and pause the stress is important yet healthy. Music helps you escape, escape everything you do not want to face. This escape brings you into your own little world where you can just be without worry.
5. Exercise – Is the bodies best friend and helps your mental ability to produce great results. Working out pumps your blood and provides mental sharpness that helps with an increase in productivity. Whenever you feel overwhelmed engage in some form of exercise. It will decrease your levels of stress and give you the time to break before heading back to the task.
6. Finding a day to do nothing – Just relax. Select a day that is dedicated to nothing but breaking. Being able to be still even in the busy of moments is a way to relax the mind and provide the body with complete rest. Pairing this with zero technology for the day is essential to the act of emptying your baggage and repacking a fresh bag. This is allow you to be ready for tasks and the ability to complete them with clear channels of thought.
mOOdee readers please be aware of your breaking points and set yourself up to break more often. Realize when you need to break and live life happier and less stressed.
Mood: Ready for Monday and prepared to give myself a timeout!
SayWhatNOW?!?! 