Sep
23
The 5 Myths of Extreme Self Care: Part 4
Myth: If you can’t do it all it right, don’t do it at all!
Truth: Simple Changes make a big difference.
There are some people (me included) that has some trouble with this. You maybe a control freak or a perfectionist, either way you have placed on yourself these enormous expectations. You have being doing it for as long as you can remember and you probably have no clue about where to even begin to stop.
But you can stop and you can move on from here.
First: Breathe
Second: Breathe again
Third: Pick just one thing to change
It is not possible to change everything in one day, one week or one year even, this is a process, a journey to create a better you.
Now what did you pick? Maybe you picked setting some boundaries at work. You have decided that you would like to work only 8 hours a day rather then 16. What are the actions you need to do this? Let me tell you about the actions I took to do this.
1. I hired people around me that could take on some of my redundant tasks, not as easy it sounds, sometimes you go through some stress. One giving up that particular area, two maybe the person you hired or delegated to just can not figure out the task. It can be done though patience.
2. I started to say no to taking on additional tasks, I would simple say that I was loaded right now, but they could check back in 3 months or I would recommend a ‘up and comer’ who had promise. I could let go of the task and help another show their potential.
The trick is really to get organized. How many of your tasks can you have automated? How things can you create templates for? How many things can you delegate?
The next trick let go of them. Think of it in terms of mentoring, you are mentoring the people around you to grow their careers and show their potential. You don’t need to do it all.
With all these things in place you will find that naturally you just don’t even need to be at work as much. And all the things that you used to do are still getting done. There is one last thing….
Sometimes, you just need to shut off the light and leave the office. Maybe you didn’t get something completed that is fine it will be there tomorrow. But your wife or husband might not be, your kids are another day older, your parents are another day older. If tomorrow never came, what would you say to your family? Go say it now!
It starts with just one baby step, one simple little thing, like delegating those reports.
