Finding time to breathe in the break-neck pace of life

For a little over two years, I’ve worked at least a six-day week.  Much of it has been a mash of part-time roles, and the pace of life has felt a fair bit like constant catch-up.  From 2013-2017 I was always working full-time and studying almost full-time load.

But I look around and I see so many people in the same place.

Like the local coffee barista I chat with, studying full-time, working part-time, constantly tired, laughing it off, but despairing at her core.  Yet, this is how she’ll achieve, and she knows it.  Some short-term pain for some long-term gain.

One of my busiest and least enjoyable days has become Saturdays.  It’s because it’s the only chance I usually get to do things that must be done.  Like most people, I’m not time poor because I’m greedily (or wisely) earning lots of money.  Sometimes I’m time poor because I over-commit myself, because I’m trying to make a difference in people’s lives.

You don’t need to be a ‘people pleaser’ to want to extend yourself to serve them.  No, that’s not a heart that’s about appeasing people at all.  It’s a heart to get in and help; to give the sort of help you know you’d appreciate receiving.

Finding time to breathe in the break-neck pace of life isn’t easy, when there are children who need to be supported and transported and there all kinds of other family, job and life pressures.

I have found, however, that there are ways to get away or squirrel away time, but it takes planning and commitment, and especially a will that says, “I need this rest and self-care, because if I don’t get it, I’ll be no good to anyone.”

I’ve got a Franklin-Covey bound planner, which is a complete planning system that requires 30-minutes a day to work, but it pays off handsomely to know you’ve got life managed.

To approach a month, perhaps in the last week of the present month, you can look ahead and see what’s on.  Right there, with that month before you, land some ‘big rocks’ of time to get away and do what you enjoy and recover.  Put them in knowing some just won’t happen.

Make at least one of those slots for the month work for you and you only.

Self-care isn’t a selfish act, it’s a wise act.  If you still feel selfish when you’re away doing your thing to rest and recover, you’re still too wedded to your world.  We get a good dose of perspective when we realise the world spins without us when we’re gone.

Imagine you’re dead for a moment; it’s going to happen at some point.  Life will move on without you, and yes there’ll be grief, but life must learn to work without you from time to time.

Take a book, or go for a swim, hike or ride, get out into nature, or go somewhere with a view to the horizon—most of us are so busy looking into a screen less than half a metre away that we miss all the life that’s going on beyond it.

Finding time to breathe in the break-neck pace of life isn’t easy, but it’s doable.  Make a commitment to yourself now that you’ve read this.  Plan your time to recharge now while the opportunity presents.  It might not be for a week or two, but now’s the time to plan for it to make it happen.

Photo by Drew Coffman on Unsplash