Glass Half Empty today...

It’s a Glass Half Empty Day…and the sun is shining so it shouldn’t be. But my physical self has kind of gotten me down, and I’m frustrated.

I’ve been here many times before and will be many times again, but it still bothers me when it happens.

It usually goes like this:

Weeks of intense activity with little rest.

Goal reached, 2-3 days of euphoria.

Day 4, utter exhaustion and absence of adrenaline. Forced to rest because you can do nothing else.

Following days: surprise at the depth of the continuing tiredness but making progress.

About a week later: cold symptoms set in but you deny that it is illness and treat as allergies.

“Allergy” symptoms worsen until you realize you have the chills, so it is NOT allergies.

You feel like crap and are down for the count…kinda -- because people still need you, and you won’t say no.

Meanwhile, projects and chores pile up so that when you finally feel better you are in a time of…

Intense activity…

And so on and so on…

Does this happen to you?

Now that I have reached the advanced age of 50-something, I am realizing that A) I say YES to too many things (Yeah, well, I’ve been realizing that for YEARS…now if I would just do something about it!) B) My baseline for STUFF THAT MUST BE DONE is way too high. I’m realizing I have to purge some Must Have/Must Do from my list because I just can’t do as much as I used to AND I don’t care to do as much either. There are so many wonderful things out there – but every time you say yes to one, it owns you a little bit, if not a lot, and I’m already overwhelmed with obligation. I’m shedding obligation as much as my Obliger* personality can handle.

And even though it is a Glass Half Empty Day, I guess the above epiphanies show that I still have hope. Because I have reached the conviction that it is OKAY to specialize and not globalize when it comes to my interests and responsibilities, I’m beginning to feel that one day I will feel much more free.

But it seems I’m learning this lesson a bit late in life…

I told you it was a Glass Half Empty Day.

*If you want to know more about the Obliger personality, I highly recommend The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. It’s an excellent help for understanding what motivates ourselves and our people. I consider it my 2017 Book of The Year…will write about it soon.