THE JUGGLE IS REAL
There's 60 minutes in an hour and in each minute I feel like I have 15,000 things running through my mind—write a blog post, choreograph, exercise, feed the dog, run errands, post on social media, make time for friends and family—the juggle is real, my friends.
The busy-ness comes with an overwhelming sense of productivity, but also chaos, which sometimes can defeat the purpose of achieving a goal or creating a successful life.
I have a terrible (or good) habit of wanting to be productive at all hours of the day—I think it comes with the mindset of creating a strong brand and meaningful life. Sometimes it seems like it's almost impossible to take a day to rest or disconnect from work and even when I do I feel guilty for resting.
I think being efficient and productive comes with managing your time effectively—it's all about quality vs. quantity.
I've been trying to really enjoy my down time and work effectively during the time that I dedicate to my "work day," and if you're burning the candle at both ends, you start to feel like your mental, emotional and physical well being is going downhill because we've been trained to view success as being a workaholic.
Photo by Lowell Wagner
My biggest problem is jumping from one thing to the next and realizing that I never fully finish a project or idea before I start the next. Then I find myself trying to complete a million things before the week is over.
But I am working on changing my mindset and working to find value in rest, adventure and real conversations with people in my life.
Shutting down my mind is something I've never been good at. I constantly feel like in order to be a successful potential entrepreneur, that you have to keep pushing yourself to infinity.
Balance and mindfulness is a big trend and something we all dream of achieving, especially with how fast-paced our lifestyles are, I think we all want the easy-going, sipping coffee in cafe and enjoying laughter with friends—but lets be real, knowing that our goals, tasks and bills have to be taken care of always comes first.
I think now more than ever it's easy to stay connected, which can be good in a sense, but also bad. The first and last thing many of us do in our day is check our texts, emails and social media—and if that is also part of your job description (like mine), then good luck because you're basically trapped in a sea of digital-ness.
It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle, but when was the last time you sat down without your phone, without your to-do list beside you and enjoyed a book or quality time with a friend?
Before we know it we start to become overworked and our creativity spark starts to fade. Busyness and productivity is a good thing, but when it starts to turn in to disorganization and stress, that's when we need to take a step back and protect our weekends or time spent to recharge our batteries.
Value relationships and experiences, just as much as you value your tasks, work and money. Evaluate how much your ambitions and social expectations dictate your work day and busyness. Before you hit a brick wall, emotionally, creatively, and mentally, ask yourself what you're doing to maintain a healthy balance of life and work.
You're in this for the long haul, so finding a balance between personal time, work time and social time is important. How do you find balance in this digital age?