Hi friends!
I was really excited to hear from so many of you as I was doing my week in the life challenge.
If you missed it, basically I just documented a week of my life through photos and captions. Some posts over shared a little more than the others (ahem toenails…..). But I tried my best to take pictures of everything!
The goal of my week challenge was to identify ways that I can help myself to not feel so busy, rushed and overwhelmed. When I first began the challenge, I thought that taking photos could really help me to realize things I am doing that are wasting my time. However by the end of the week, I realized my lesson learned would be something different…
Doing this challenge helped me realize the following things:
- I am really busy
- I work a lot
- I workout a lot
- I don’t get much sleep during the week
- I take Lazy Sundays to a whole new level
- I do a lot of really fun things
- I have a pretty amazing life
On this list, I think the most important items are numbers 6 and 7.
By the middle of the week I knew that my “lesson learned” had nothing to do with changing how I spent my time or making more efficient decisions. Instead, my lesson learned would have to do with my actions, and controlling my feelings (especially the feeling of being overwhelmed).
One day last year, I had a routine meeting with my boss. The day of this meeting I was felt like my head was about to explode, and that I could have a major meltdown at any moment (exactly what you DO NOT want to do in front of your boss!!!). I felt like there was just not enough time to get everything done, and I was slacking on things in my work life, and my personal life.
During this meltdown, my life was extremely similar to what it is now. I was training for the NYC Marathon, head coaching Girls on the Run, working like crazy, and trying to maintain a social life. I was also trying to get the amount of sleep I thought I needed to function.
And as I was melting down, my boss gave me some advice. He told me that controlling the situation and my feelings would depend on two things. Those things were changing my perspective, and evaluating my priorities.
After he told me this, I really took the advice to heart and applied it wherever I could. Whether it be in my work life, or my personal life, I learned that this could actually apply anywhere.
On day 6 of my challenge, I had to apply this advice to my life again. If you missed this post, I was full out MELTING DOWN over feeling overwhelmed because I was struggling to fit a ton of fun things that I CHOSE to do into my day (boo hoo, huh?). I was about to ruin my Saturday by crying about things that were not things to cry about. And that is where fixing my perspective came in handy.
“Check it before you wreck it”, I thought. And that thought alone helped tremendously. I was able to get a check on things and enjoy my Saturday.
Following ‘the week in the life posts’, I’ve had people tell me that they don’t understand how I do everything, and mostly how I wake up so early. But to me, it is my only option. All of these choices I make are things I love doing. And they are the things that make my life what it is. And to get in all of the things I want to do, it means I don’t get to sleep as much as I would like during the week.
Running, family, friends, boyfriend, social life, Girls on the Run and work are my priorities. I am confident that if I did not fill my days with these things, my life would not be complete and I would be pretty bored. I would also not be nearly as happy as I am now.
And isn’t life all about filling your time with things that make you happy? 🙂
Do you have ways that you handle your stress?
Or ever have to fix your perspective or priorities?
xo,
Ali
miles with style 