Learning to take time for myself
For the longest time (and perhaps the early readers of my blog may remember this) I’ve had a really hard time saying “no” to things. One more book chapter. One more social media event. One more party. One more thing. Always. There would be times when I would attend two tweetups and another social media event on the same night. Within 3 hours. That is, I would spend less than 45 minutes at each single event.
In the past few months, I’ve learned to just take time for myself. I’ve said “sorry, but I can’t” or “thanks, but I’m taking a night for myself” or “I appreciate the invite, I can’t make it, I need time for myself” more often.
And quite frankly, I feel less and less guilty now. I still attend events (heck, I was exhausted and I participated on a panel at Fresh Media in the past couple of weeks) but I am now more selective with what I do. I feel a strong responsibility to attend theatre shows to support the local artistic community, but if I can’t make it, well, I can’t make it. Sorry, and so be it.
Finally, it seems as though I’ve begun to learn to take time for myself. And it feels great.
Related posts:
- My goals for 2011: More time for reading
- I did a PhD out of passion for learning
- The space/time continuum in social media
- Green Thursday, Raul time Friday and easy weekend
- Learning to ask for help
As Stephen Covey says, you have to “sharpen the saw” and take time out. Of course your version of slowing down is still a million miles an hour for most of us, but good for you for putting yourself first.