You deserve some grace today...

Have you ever felt like you were living a real life version of the game "Whack a Mole"? Just constantly running from one task to another without ever completing any of them? That's how I was feeling a few weeks ago, so I needed to take some time to organize all that is happening in my life and redesign my daily plan. With the approach of the busy holiday season, perhaps you too need to step back for a minute before you break.

In this popular game, the object is to "whack" each mole as they pop up. It's a game of focus and hand-eye coordination. Lately, I felt like I was playing a real life version and I was losing. I found myself starting a project, getting interrupted by the next "mole" and jumping to the next thing, then the next, then the next. Each morning I would get up and realize I had so many small things left undone and began feeling more overwhelmed by the minute. Piles of laundry needed to be folded, a package sat on the table needing to get to the post office, curtains were down in one room as I was beginning the deep seasonal cleaning, minutes from the last meeting still needed to be sent, emails to respond to, a new song to learn for a class, work, life....the list goes on. I kept thinking; 'once I get past this thing, all will settle down' . The problem was I kept adding to the task list without making room in my schedule. We all do this. I had a conversation with a colleague yesterday and she said she falls victim to the same bad habit.

One morning, as I was emptying the dishwasher, a glass slipped out of my hand and broke. For me, that was the tipping point and as I swept up the shards of broken glass, I sobbed. All the anxiety and stress seemed to be strewn along my kitchen floor in all those pieces of glass. I sat on the floor and let it all out. When I wiped away the tears, and stood up, the broken glass was still on the floor, but as I continued to clean it up I began to feel some sense of relief. My family was not going to be upset with that broken glass so why should I stress about it? And I began to examine all the things I had going on - and prioritized the tasks. I took a few days off from work and organized. I told myself I would not move on to the next thing, until the first was completed. So that phone call was going to have to wait until I finished the email, etc... I set a schedule for myself for each day much like a did when the kids were small. I began to feel like I was crawling out from the pile.

The reality was all of the same projects, tasks, to do's were still there I was just looking at it from a different perspective and that has given me peace. During the upcoming holiday season there will be endless lists of things to do and to add to everyone's already busy life. We need to step back and give ourselves grace. We have to realize that we are all human and have our limits. Perhaps it is a matter of re-prioritizing or maybe we have to say "no I can't possibly do that".

Heart disease is the number one cause of death among women and stress is a leading contributor to heart disease. It is important to realize that while that broken glass may not be missed by the family, you will! Take the time to step back and examine the priorities before the glass breaks.