It's OK to be Selfish...Sometimes

Have you ever been so drained (physically, mentally, emotionally, maybe all 3…) that you felt like you were on auto pilot?  I have…last occurrence was about 2 weeks ago!  Now, before I elaborate on the real topic of this post, let me just explain a little about my life at the moment.  I am a full-time mom (currently single but only for about 7 more months), full-time student, and close enough to full-time employee.  Any one of those things alone is enough to wear you down, combine them all together and you’re bound to have a meltdown or two.

So, last month, we were in the middle of the performance run for the musical at the college which means that for 2 weeks straight, I woke up at 6:30 am, got myself and the 4 year old ready, took him to pre-school and me to work by 8:45, went to school at 11, back to work at 1:30, back to school again at 5:30, down to the pit (area under the stage where the musicians sit) at 6:30, played the show starting at 7:30, left school between 10:30 & 11:00, picked up the 4 year old from the babysitter’s, got home between 11:00 & 11:30, did homework till 1:30 am or so and finally got to sleep.  I’m pretty sure I lost track of what day it was at some point due to the 4 year old getting sick and puking all night one night so 2 of those days blended into one really loooooong day. 

Anyway, by the time the last few nights of the show rolled around I was so drained that I was definitely on auto pilot.  You know you are exhausted when you walk by one of your professors and the first words out of their mouth are “wow, you look tired!”  Tired doesn’t even begin to describe what I felt like that day.  If I were my cell phone, I would have had that flashing red battery light going off like crazy saying “warning, 1% battery remaining” J 

I sat down and had a relaxing conversation with a great friend and began to feel my batteries recharge (slowly).  In the midst of that conversation I realized that I had been (and still am) devoting ALL of my time and energy to everyone else and none to myself.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can only go so long without some “me” time before I just start to shut down.  I was at that shut down point.  So, I did, only for a few minutes though.  Like a computer, I shut down for a minute, rebooted, and felt better!  I was still really tired but mentally I felt refreshed.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because as parents, students, employees, spouses, etc. we are constantly required to give as much of ourselves as possible to someone else and rarely have time to realize that we haven’t given anything to ourselves.  We can only do that for so long before the quality of what we give to others goes down.  So, my solution: BE SELFISH!  Not all the time of course, but make time for yourself to recharge your batteries and reboot your system.  Whether it’s a jog around the block, date night with friends, a drive by yourself in the car, do it.  Steal back some of your precious time and energy from everyone else and keep it.  You will be so glad that you did and everyone around you will notice.  My challenge to you for today: PLAN 30 MINUTES THIS WEEK THAT YOU WILL DEVOTE TO YOURSELF.  Feel free to post a comment with what you do to recharge yourself and go ahead, be a little selfish, you deserve it!