This year, I will not try to be Super Woman!

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This year, I will not try to be Super Woman!

February 5, 2008

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slowing down life

Repeat after me: This year, I will not try to be Super Woman!

Last month, I talked about “How sleeping 4-5 hours per night almost did me in”. What I might not have revealed up to now is that while most of you were enjoyed the festive celebrities, I was stuck in bed and inside my home with a severe flu virus that nearly did me in. I cannot remember the last time I had been that sick.

Nursing my sick self back to a healthier me really got me thinking about the decisions I had made during 2007 and how they have gotten me to a point where I truly believed that working insane hours (morning, day and night) without any breaks would have no bearing on my health.
How many women are guilty of trying to do too much in one day? How many commitments and events can be crammed in one single week?
It might sound like a news flash, but overbooking your schedule and working extremely long hours will age you faster than you’d like. Yes, I’m quite guilty of not following my own advice and I paid for it dearly.

Because I often feel that I can take on the world, I simply don’t always know when to put breaks, so this year, I will (force) myself to put on the breaks and learn not to be a Super Woman.

I’ve devised a short plan and I hope that my “I’m no Super Woman” plan will help me get back on track to a healthier and more balanced lifestyle and I hope it might also help other readers who suffer from the same affliction as I do.

*** My “I’m no Super Woman” plan ***

I will prioritize my personal life over my professional life: Yes, I surely need to work on that. I often tend to put all personal activities aside in my pursuit of my goals. I know very well that taking time to connect with friends is an essential component of a healthy and balanced life and a sure way of ensuring that I age well. I’ve violated this key commandment of aging-well more times that I care to share.

I will delegate: I love this word! At least, I can honestly say that I don’t have a problem delegating. I always prefer to leave certain things in the hands of qualified people. The problem is that when you start a business, your financial abilities to delegate as much as you’d like to is directly related to how fast your business grows. As much as I’d love to delegate enough to ensure that my week doesn’t spill over the 50-hour mark, I’m not yet there and I found myself in 2007 falling asleep at my computer with my mouse in my hand. For 2008, I will work on ways to actually delegate more in order to grow faster and be able to delegate even more.

I will schedule “me” time: YES! I will schedule “me” time. I really don’t have to go on about this cardinal rule of aging-well. Suffice to say that I will no longer wash my hair at 11 p.m., do my nails at midnight, or pluck my eyebrows at 1am because my day was so packed that it was the only time of the day I had to do such activities. I will smell the roses, go for walks, go to the movies and I will start a book and finish it in a normal time limit (in 2007, I’ve started books that took me over 6 months to read because I couldn’t find the time to chill). Currently, my only “me” time is the time I take to train. That said, I’ve noticed in the last few months of 2007, that while training, my thoughts were filled with all the things I didn’t do and I had a lot of difficult just enjoying the moment.

I will learn to say “no” to my own projects: For some of you, it will actually be learning how to say “no” that will safe you in 2008. The emotional stress that many people feel when they know they might have to say “no” to someone (even a stranger) is incredibly challenging. This is the kind of stress that you want to avoid, because as we know stress is one of the all time age-busters. Personally, I don’t have any difficulties saying “no” to people, but I do have difficulties saying “no” to tasks that I think might help my business. Instead, of saying “enough for the day” and taking some extra “me time” (read the cardinal rule above), I add an extra 30-60-90 minutes to my day that I usually cut out of my sleep time.

I will take a break: I will cut the chains to my desktop computer and I will claim back my weekends! Your chains might be the many after-school activities your kids are enrolled in, the many part-time jobs you have on the side, the commute to-and-fro from work, the many business trips or the extra volunteering hours. It doesn’t matter what keeps you chained, you have to figure out how to better manage all of your daily activities or learn how to cut back.

I’m not going to even get into vacations. I’ve already mentioned how North Americans suffered from a serious affliction: not taking enough yearly vacation time. Europeans are much better at it and we can surely learn a thing or two.

You can still catch my post on: If you want to age better, you’ll need a vacation.

What I’m talking about is to take a Friday afternoon and just to go for a facial, relax, catch a movie or spend the afternoon with a friend or a loved one.

I will reconnect with friends: Wow, life gets in the way and you see your friends less and less often. Fostering positive friendships will not only nourish the soul, but it will also help your age so much better. Strong friendships are like a cashmere sweater … they make you feel warm, protected and happy.

I’ll go back to training with a clear mind: Physical activity is at the top of my list when it comes to aging-well. The problem is when you try to train and your mind is clouded with thoughts, you’re really not fully benefiting from the amazing power of having a fit lifestyle. I’m claiming back my training time and I will force myself to leave my list of things to do at home in order to go back to training with a clear mind.

These are goals and I know that unless I make a conscious effort to make these happen, I most likely will be writing about the same thing in one year from now.

I’ll let you know how I’m doing in the spring. Since it takes about 21 days of repetitive action to implement new habits, it’s going to take me some time before I can feel that I’ve started to claim back my life.

Photo by: Strange

Posted by Beauty Match on February 5, 2008 | Permalink

Topics: Body & Mind Health, Slowing Down Life |