Well, we are well into 2019. I hope you are still pumped about what you plan to do for the whole year and settling in getting those resolutions and goals done. However, there is a time and space for relaxation and enjoyment. We must be aware that we need to also enjoy life even as we conquer our dreams.
So, you may be wondering, I am so full of desires and dreams that I don’t have time to relax, or I won’t get anything accomplished. Well, I have some news for you, if you don’t relax and find enjoyment in the process, you will never feel satisfied of what you are doing, and eventually will burn out.
I am certainly like one of those who feels extremely unproductive when I don’t get at least five things done on my to do list. I don’t think I ever in my life had a day when I didn’t have something to do, or feel compelled to do something. But this year I am determined to change this mindset and know that I do work hard, both at my full time job and on my side projects and that in order to be as creative and productive as I can be, I need to take time for myself relax and enjoy my life presently. some personal time to relax and just enjoy my life. We need to have the balance between working and enjoying life .
So here are some of my tips to how to find relaxation and enjoyment for 2019.
- Have a set time for work. Knowing hours are for work and what hours you have for free time can really help. I try to have all my work done by 7pm so I have an hour to get ready for bed and unwind from the day. This year my work has scheduled me to work much earlier in the day. Thus, it is crucial that I get things done early so that I have time to get ready for bed. This means I need to get up earlier so that I can get a few things done before my working day starts. I find that I can concentrate on tasks much easier early in the morning, rather than not doing anything and then coming home from a long day at work to do more work, which certainly didn’t sound appealing. So make sure that you know what hours you are best when working and what hours you want to have for a bit of me time or family time. In the modern era, balance is certainly needed to juggle all of the demands of life.
- Have a relaxation reward. After you have established what time frame you want to work, then you need to decide what you would like to do with your relaxation time. Make sure it is something that you find you enjoy, otherwise the activity you decide may seem like more work. My favorite thing to do to unwind is to journal. Since I can’t write every night like I used to as a child, I will just use my free hours that I set aside for myself to journal all the days that I need to journal. It just relaxes me and inspires me to find enjoyment and make memories out of ordinary life. So find that something that will make you want to work on your personal goals so that you can have that relaxation reward.
- Pace yourself. The key to having relaxation and enjoyment is to not overburden yourself. We all get excited about a certain goal and we decide to dump the load of work upon ourselves. Two weeks into this goal and we are already burned out and ready to quit. Thus, to really enjoy your relaxation, you need to pace yourself. Emotionally you would love to run three miles, physically you have never run before. So instead of burdening yourself to run three miles the fist time you run, pace yourself. Run only a block or something small to get your motivation up. Same goes to personal goals, start small while learning how you cope with the demands and add more as you go along.
- Remind yourself it is okay not to do a task. Sometimes we get all worked up that we have to do a certain task a certain way at a certain time. And when we can’t do this particular task the way we think and feel that it needs to be done, we feel like we failed. I know I am like this, and stayed up many nights trying to get something the way I thought would be perfect, and be almost on the verge of tears because I couldn’t get it perfect enough. In these situations we need to take a moment and remind ourselves it in the space of a life, this one task being done at this time would not matter, just as long as it gets done . Of course, I am not referring to school work assignments, that will be in a different topic. What I am talking about here are personal assignments that we give ourselves that we feel need to be done on a certain date, a certain time, and a certain way. We must allow ourselves time, and sometimes certain personal tasks take a long time. Writing that novel won’t take a day to write and certainly not a few months to edit. So for 2019, remind yourself not to get worked up on the little things and that doing a little at a time will have results. And use that time that you would have had for that task to reflect and see what you need to do in order to finish that task again. Sometimes just relaxing is all that you need to get your inspiration up and your motivation running.
I hope that these tips will help you in 2019 and I wish you all the best in conquering your dreams. You can do this.
Have a great week,
Alyssa