Part 1
Esteemed readers, I would like you to meet Cindy. Cindy is a working mother, and like all working moms she faces all of the daily challenges of a professional, as well as a mother of four. Her daily to-do-list (although intangible) is a mile long littered with errands, emails, meetings, sports, dinner, shopping, refereeing, and a host of other tasks that have taken residence on her abstract to-do list. I could sit here all day painting you a picture of her life stretching this article out, but who has time for that? You know that life all too well, because in some form or another you live it. You spend your days in a harried frenzy, making check lists in the air as you go, and always forgetting something in the process.
This article is to help you make happen all that you want to happen in any given day without feeling over taxed and overwhelmed. To all you “Nay Sayers”, I challenge you to READ ON!!! This, my friends, is the beginning of knowing your life can have rhythm. This isn’t a secret formula discovered by me thru happen-stance. I am not some self help guru with a master plan to “change you from the inside out”. I am your time-management tutor! Let’s take a moment to define time-management. I like this definition of time- “a prescribed or allotted period, as one’s life, for payment of a debt“… And management is defined as “the act of managing, handling, supervision or control“… So time management is YOU controlling YOUR time. That is it. If you are like Cindy (and I know you are) you allow work, kids, and loved ones control your time. If I had a nickel for every time I heard “If only the day was longer” or “If there were just two more hours in a day”, I would be a wealthy woman. Here is a fact -the day doesn’t need more hours. I can see your eyes rolling and hear your sigh of disbelief from here. Let’s break it down.
Work is a gluttonous beast gorging itself on your time, energy, and patience; but it is a necessary part of life that we must face every day. Family, single mom or not, this aspect of life is akin to work in the manner that it manifests itself. Family is a major player in the game of life and, after work; family is the next beast to view your time as a buffet. Pay one price and consume all you can! This part of life should not be a chore. It shouldn’t resemble Work in the beastly sense. Our friend Cindy loves her family and wants to make them happy and facilitate their every need even if it is at the expense of neglecting her own. She gets up early and goes to bed late. She rushes from home, to work, to home, to the store, to sports, back home only to realize she forgot to get milk, peanut butter, and that body wash she saw the commercial for! So Cindy rushes back to the store, and by then she is fast forwarding to what’s for dinner she has fast food on the brain and quickly leaves the store with body wash and peanut butter (after all that is all she forgot right?). Making a dash across the parking lot she grabs value meals for all and with an audible sigh she heads home to put to bed the rest of her day. The kids are fed and she takes their word for their homework being done. While sending them off to bed she requests they bring her their dirty laundry. Ah finally peace and quiet. Nothing more than the whir of the washer and the droning of the dryer, Cindy kicks off her shoes with an air of satisfaction. “Another day down… OH NO! MILK!!!!!!!”
If Cindy’s day in anyway reflects the majority of days in your week then creating rhythm in your life is likely music to your ears. Life rhythm is waking up everyday knowing what has to be done and knowing how to accomplish it. I am not promising you will have all kinds of free time, or never forget another gallon of milk. I am promising that if you take a few simple suggestions and implement them into your life one at a time, you will see a difference in your stress level as well as feel a purposeful flow to your day. I challenge all of the harried frantic people out there from all walks of life to step up to the plate and create their own life rhythm. See seperate post regarding my Life Rhythm Challenge!
