Day 89: The stress of life

Today I get to play catch up. I’m running on not a lot of sleep, but there is so much to be done it isn’t funny. Ironically enough, it’s not all school either. I have life things catching up with me, car repairs that I need to do, house things, you know the usual day to day things that pile up despite our best efforts.

Finding a good balance between work and life isn’t easy. I’m flexible usually, I give myself a few days a week to myself and the rest of the time I’m flailing around trying to get something done in an intelligent way. This isn’t a new topic, I’ve written on the importance of work/life balance before. The difference today is that I’m having trouble balancing, work is piling up, choirs are piling up, and it seems like it will NEVER end!!!!

Which reminds me of a story, when I first started seeing a therapist she responded by saying it sounds like I’m stressed all the time. Funny thing was, I never thought about it until she brought it up. It never occurred to me that I could be stressed out, I just didn’t feel like I was doing enough to be able to “claim” stress. That was a long, long time ago (… in a galaxy far, far away. Sorry couldn’t help myself), but I still think about it when I get stressed out (like now!).

We often compare our accomplishments to others and we end up feeling like we’re coming up short. How can someone else be so productive while I feel like I’m drowning? Truthfully, they probably feel the same way about you, but it’s hard to step away from ourselves like that.

Stress isn’t always a bad thing either, it can be motivation to get something done that you may not want to do (I’m a pro procrastinator and I’m sure I’m not the only one). Maybe the point of this post is just to say that it’s okay to be stressed out, even if you feel like you haven’t “earned” the right to say that. In any case, it’s back to work for me…

Until next time, don’t stop learning!