Somehow I'd gotten into the habit over the years of pushing to accomplish things. This started years ago, when raising a family, taking care of a house, and working full time exceeded my natural abilities. Task lists bled over from days to weeks to...ugh, years! I began to feel overwhelmed, and would try to "work" my way out of the hole I found myself in. But as all of you list keepers know, the truth is you never, ever get all you have to do done, and in fact the list tends to grow longer. The harder you try, the behind-er you get! Worse than that, I felt frustrated by the fact that there was never any time to enjoy life. I felt the need to recreate, but never seemed to have the time.
Which brings me to the point of this post. I have learned over the years that if I'm ever going to stay sane with all of the demands on me I was going to have to be proactive in a different way - specifically I was going to have to make a point of enjoying life. It doesn't come automatically, at least not for me. Enjoying life is actually an attitude...you can do it all the time. Even when you are working, you can be enjoying work. When you are playing, you can enjoy it all the more when you have the right attitude (it's possible to be focused on what you have to do when you get home, and miss the thing you are doing).
Now for me it may be easy - having gotten to a really great stage in life, where the demands on me are less by far than they used to be. There are also many blessings in a having a great climate, with a lovely home and a great family. Realize that it took many hard years to get to this point. Needless to say I could have been enjoying those harder times more had I realized this secret earlier. And I'm sure I tried my best too.
When you get to this age (not quite decrepit, but certainly past my prime) you start to see things through different eyes, and realize that there isn't that much of this life left. So I want to enjoy it more. This doesn't mean goofing off, or partying all the time. Life isn't a vacation, and there is still plenty of work to do. It's just that I have started to take more time to smell the flowers...figuratively speaking. I stop to think how very blessed I really am. I've got a great job that pays well, wonderful kids all walking with the Lord, even grandchildren (I hardly believe this), we live in a nice house, AND we have all the time we can stand to enjoy all of this. Thinking of the blessings helps you to enjoy them more, and keeps you from always wanting more and more too.
I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the to-do list plagues me sometimes. The way I handle this today is to SCHEDULE time for recreation. If I don't, it won't happen. Almost everyone schedules time for a vacation...I've learned to do that, too, although it took me years to figure that one out. What about mini vacations...you can take an overnight, or an outing to the park, or an hour or two out to watch a movie or listen to music. Then there is the micro vacation...5 minutes of peace and quiet, without electronic gadgets, absent text or email calling. This is just relax time!
Some of you are going, duh!, this is what I do all the time. Good for you! But I know others are suffering from enjoyment deficit just like me, and for you I say, learn this secret now, before it passes you by. You never hear people on their death bed saying "I wish I had spent more time working". Don't worry, you to-do list will be right there waiting for you when you get back. And when you do, enjoy that too!
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