Women Over Fifty—Balance Revisited
I’ve been reading a number of blog posts about making and succeeding with New Year’s resolutions. In fact, the topic is all over the Internet as well as on TV, in magazines, and on the radio. December may be all about “the jolly” but January seems to be all about knuckling down and getting serious: contrition after excess, famine after feast, and focus after frivolity. However, one of my favorite blogs, Woof: Women Only Over Fifty bucked the trend with their post on December 29th counseling all of us to “Outsource Resolutions.” A great idea that likely engendered spontaneous cheers from around the globe!
Nevertheless it ‘tis the season to get a fresh start, determine what we want in ’09 and go after it. In my last post, I suggested creating a pie chart that represented several areas of your life so that your goals could be in balance and encompass your entire being. A few days after I wrote it, I happened to catch Oprah’s show when she confessed that her weight gain was due to being “out of balance.”
In my own experience, I can relate. When I concentrate too much on work, dieting, exercise, or other goals I’ve set for myself, I can neglect important areas of my life including rest and self-care. This can really backfire because I’ll get tired from too much work, cranky from too much dieting, and sore from overdoing it at the gym. My typical response to these kinds of stressors is to blow off my goals and head into the kitchen for a big bowl of ice cream. This I follow with a lengthy session in front of the boob tube and several additional snacks.
So, before you sabotage what may be a promising start to creating lasting change in your life, remember that balance is important and a bit of outsourcing might come in very handy from time to time. At the very least, read the post—even (or perhaps especially) goal setting is one activity that needs a good laugh!
Social Media Workshop
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are active on the Internet, you have a real treat in store. Suzanna Stinnett and Ursula Kauth are presenting an all day workshop entitled “Social Media Mappers” that will teach you strategies to build your web presence using innovative and effective techniques. It takes place on Thursday, January 15th. Check it out—it promises to provide you with new and valuable ways to harness the power of the web.
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January 13th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Thank you so much for reminding me that it’s really is all about balance. I decided not to make any new resolutions, but to continue my journey in figuring out just the right balance in all my relationships and just the right balance in the relationship with food and my body. It’s all about ME!
January 12th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
So many great things we can do with our time and as we get passionately involved with one project, yes, our lives can get out of whack. For short times we can go all out to get something accomplished, other things set aside, but that should be special cases, not a way of life. I found more balance by delegating things to other family members. No I don’t have to do everything, they can help.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Absolutely right, Eileen. The more pressure I put on myself, the more likely I am to fail. Balance is something I desperately need. And, so glad you enjoyed the WOOF blog. When all else fails, laugh!
January 12th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Thanks, Eileen, for mentioning WOOF!
Wish I could remember where I read it (another symptom that makes me feisty to be over fifty!), but the concept was this: Humor/laughter/all things funny stimulate ideas. It’s hard for me, when I’m struggling for the right word or brush stroke, to reach instead for something amuzing. “No, not yet! I can DO this thing!!” It’s like I want to punish myself for not being brilliant 24/7! When just maybe the Universe wants me to take things a little less seriously. Angles fly because they take themselves lightly. Read that, too, SOMEWHERE… Diana http://www.woofersclub.blogspot.com
January 11th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Eileen – I’m one of those who refuses to do the New Year Resolution thing, besides my birthday is 2 weeks later and that is my time for review, revisit and reform, lol.
I love my work but as a result I can spend way too much time on it and not enough time for relaxing and giving back to myself. So I have made sort of a resolution to take Sundays for ME.
I try to write a blog for my Life Is Like Art – It’s All In How You Look At It. that relates to my art on a personal-positive thought level and this helps me focus back on ME and not my work. Have to admit I’ve missed a few Sundays as a result of moving though, lol. So, today – I’m going to talk about balance thanks to you!
After I do my post, I do my mani-pedis or whatever and catch up on reading and tv shows! Today is so beautiful I’m going outside to do some of this stuff – get a little sunshine on my shadow!
January 11th, 2009 at 3:13 am
You hit the nail on the head:) This method is the only way all that works together.We can’t change our old bad habits overnight and I believe we all need a “me day”. I do this once a month at least.Lifetime, fatting food and my couch in PJAYS EVEN:)
January 10th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
What a great reminder for us Boomer Women. Balance is the key. If we do it right, with age comes wisdom. After years of experiencing “burn out” in one area or the other, it would seem clear that we need to focus the proper amount of attention on each area of our existence. Sometimes I think we just need a gentle reminder – thanks.
January 10th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Thanks for this balanced perspective, Eileen. As you have read on my blog, I believe the natural time for new beginnings is spring, not the first of the calendar year. Spring is the “natural new year.” I think the new calendar year is a great time for looking back on what we have accomplished–or not–during the past 365 days. Like most of nature that lies dormant during the winter months, I see our best use of winter is to restore and replenish ourselves. It’s a time to think about how we want to re-enter our lives with new vigor in spring so we can plant the seeds of our creations, bloom them in summer, and finally, harvest them in autumn. Winter is for R&R and regrouping. If we try to make change when all the rest of nature (we are a part of it!) has the wisdom to grant itself down time, no small wonder when our resolutions often fail. We’re trying to swim upstream. If we do the inner work to bolster our positive attitude and to overcome any emotional blocks to success, by spring we’ll be ready to spring forward. Maybe that’s why they call it Spring?
January 10th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I do agree that balance is really important. I believe the reason some people fail in business is because they concentrate too much on the job at hand–therefore causing them to neglect the ME time. I always say what good is it to have a successful business if you’re too stressed out to appreciate it.
Make Your MESS Your MESSAGE in 2009!