Yes! No! Balance it Out

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions; I resolve to make changes in my life when I find they’re needed, not just when the calendar changes. There are commitments I’ve made to myself that I want to reinforce today, and I’ll do that. I’m won’t bore you with WHAT I plan to do. I want to share HOW I plan to do.  I want to remember three perspectives I need to keep in mind. I thought you might like them too.

1.     Say Yes! — When a new opportunity comes

along, sometimes I over-analyze whether it’s worth the effort or just say “no” as a default. I’ve missed a few that I think I should have taken. There’s lots of interesting, fun, invigorating things out there that I’ve never done; I need to find them. If there’s not a good reason to say “No,” I need to say “yes!”

2.     Say No! — This isn’t exactly a contradiction of #1. It is a matter of saying no to the guilt trips and the people who want to suck my time who don’t give back in any form. Sometimes it’s a matter of saying no to the small things so that I have time for the big things. Mainly, it’s a matter of saying no to the things that don’t enhance my life.

 3.     Focus – I need to keep my eye on what’s important. Sometimes that means saying no to thinks I’d like to say yes to. But it’s a matter of keeping my eye on the ball. What’s important? My family. My job. A few projects that I feel are important. Taking care of myself.

4.     Engage my creative spirit — Part of me sees writing as work, but the other part loves expressing myself. So I need to do it more. Photography? Always fun, even with the editing time. I enjoy sharing the beauty I see in the world. The bottom line is that I’m never happier than when I’m engaging my creative spirit. That can be writing, reading, snapping pics, making people laugh, solving problems, and many more things.

So, have you noticed that each item above can be contradicted by one of more of the others? I sure have. So, I’m back to the fundamental perspective:

5.     Balance – too much of anything makes me less than what I’d like to be. I need to remember the importance of 1-4 and figure out how to balance them in a way that works best for me. I can’t balance them all every day, but within a week, or a month, I can. Some weeks, I have commitments that prevent the others. But the next week, I can sneak in the neglected items. In the difficult years, it takes much longer to balance things out. That’s part of what makes it difficult.

That’s it! It sounds simple, but that doesn’t make it easy.