Hi Reader,
The past few months I have been piling more and more items onto my plate that were other people’s priorities and not my own.
It’s so insidious how this happens.
I began to say ‘Yes’ without checking in with what I already had on the go, and before I knew it I was overcommitted and regretting my choices!
The tipping point for me was a random question, 'Suze are you an early bird or a night owl?'
To which I replied “Neither, I'm a permanently exhausted pigeon.”
Which resulted in them literally spitting coffee.
I must have been a comedian in another life!
Which do you identify as - early bird, night owl, or permanently exhausted pigeon (PEP)?
And more importantly, is this serving you?
As helpers, we can often put our own needs last.
We think to ourselves ‘when this… then that…’
Some personal examples include:
“When my kids go back to school then I will go to bed earlier”.
“When I finish this project then I will go back to my daily walks”.
“When everyone is over the illness then I will start meal planning again”.
And so on and so forth.
The thing is there is always another thing popping up that needs our immediate attention.
So we are forever putting ourselves on the end of the ‘to do’ list and waiting for ‘one day’.
If we continue down this path ‘one day’ will never come.
We get to take charge of our change and decide NOW is the time.
So what did this PEP do?
I ditched a whole lot of things that I didn’t really want to do.
Was their guilt? You betcha!
Did I feel that perhaps I was ‘letting people down’? Of course.
Were some people disappointed in me? As much as it pains me to say it, yes.
However I realised that I was letting myself down most of all by continuing to do ‘all the things.’
I’m reminded of this quote -
“Every time you're given a choice between disappointing someone else and disappointing yourself, your duty is to disappoint that someone else. Your job throughout your entire life is to disappoint as many people as it takes to avoid disappointing yourself.”
― Glennon Doyle, Untamed
So my fellow PEPs, who do you need to disappoint to look after YOU?
Fly free!
Suzanne
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