Embrace the sunset

When you run a business, lead a professional community, are a mother of three, and juggle with a thousand other things in your life - sometimes it's super hard to do things that fill you with energy.

You know it would be great to read a few chapters.

To drink a cup of coffee/tea slowly.

To walk.

To run.

To go to the gym.

To see your friends. Or to call the ones who live abroad...

But instead, you come up with a thousand excuses, maybe not even on a conscious level.

I'll do this later.

I'll do that next time.

Often you have just too many reasons to not to think about yourself.

But if you start observing, you might discover that something is missing, something is off...

When was the last time when you noticed that YOU need YOU as well?

In the past weeks, I had the opportunity to have it all: first, a 2-week me-time while all my children as well as my husband were traveling, followed by a 2-week family vacation, all of us riding an RV across the Pacific Northwest US.?

As you can imagine, at the beginning of the first two "myself only" weeks, it was a super weird feeling, being alone in the house.

It was too quiet.

Sometimes I didn't know what I should do, without having the usual mess in the kitchen or laundry piling up next to the washing machine.

But slowly, I was able to slow down and enjoy this time.

It was great to be able to listen more to the voice in my head, to pay more attention to everything I ignore too often otherwise.

Then, as my family came back home, everything went back to "normal" for a few days - until we left for a vacation together.

The dynamics couldn't have been any more different: the five of us loaded into an RV, driving around WA and OR, hiking, drinking fresh water from creeks, swimming in vulcanic lakes, rivers, and waterfalls, relaxing at the ocean, baseball game in Seattle, and countless other lifetime experiences...

However, if you're the same "all-in" parent who I am, you know very well that this also means that you also get back to the "normal" priorities.

You have to do grocery shopping once in a while.

You have to prepare breakfast and dinner and everything between.

Do the laundry whenever you have a chance.

Clean the kitchen.

Switch the RV to day mode. Pack everything to driving mode. Then switch to night mode again...

Plan the next few days ahead.

Then re-plan.

And re-plan again...

One thing I learned during these two weeks is that you don't need, you should not split your life into "with family" and "without family" segments. It should be balanced enough, you should respect your own needs as well, and you should always make time for yourself.

It's not selfish, it's all about balance.

Choose balance all the time.

Not only when you are in a slow-down mode.

While doing all the work and family thing and everything else, you should not forget about the things that were so important while having your me-time.

Relax. Recharge.

Read.

Drink your coffee/tea slowly and mindfully.

And when the sky is clear, go and watch that sunset at the beach.

Your children won't remember if they get dinner 20 or 30 min later. (Especially if you take them with you to watch the sunset - why not embrace it together?)

If you're back to work, in most cases your clients won't remember if they get that email response from you a few hours later.

Your readers won't remember what time you posted that latest blog post.

But you will remember that sunset for sure.

It's just up to you what you will have in your memories: a beautiful play of colors with a gorgeous golden wonder approaching the ocean - or a missed opportunity (again) when the only thing you catch is the aftermath, the sky that is already turning into grey and dark.

The decision is yours.