You are the CEO of your journey
The world, body, and mind are in a constant state of atrophy. And there are things you can do to maintain, build and grow while this is happening.
When we go through challenging life events, changes that demand our attention and throw us out of balance, it can become an easy scapegoat to slack on the things that are important for our sanity, mental health, and maintenance. Are there any of us who haven't used the words "I just don't have the time", as a means to justify slacking on our self-care, pushing us to the brink of sanity?
"You are the CEO of your journey. Make sure that you feature in it, by scheduling your life to fit your desires and goals."
Get a schedule. We schedule our lives when it comes to work, to the point that we have no time for ourselves. And our approach to Work-Life Balance seems to favour work, rather than the thing that is important for everything around us to function properly - ourselves.
I found that when I went through the trying times in my life, my separation, divorce, job loss, anxiety, and depression got worse and worse; and it was tougher to do the things that really matter. The things that are important for me to maintain all the other aspects of my life that depend on me.
You are the CEO of your journey
Read that again!
If you are a CEO, you schedule your day. Every minute. So that you can get to everything that requires your attention. A schedule becomes so important, that you'll even get an assistant to manage it for you. Why not do that for everything in your life?
The benefits of scheduling your life:
1. Manage your stress and anxiety
When you have a schedule in place, it takes away the stress/anxiety of needing to decide what you are going to do with your time. If you have a proper schedule in place that takes into account your work, personal life, self-care, and personal goals that are balanced, your mind knows when it can expect certain pleasures, and what states it needs to be in to fulfill certain tasks ahead. Our minds have a finite source of decision-making on every given day. When we take the choice out of the equation, we have more mental capacity for important decisions.
2. Discipline as a form of self-love
Devoting a certain percentage to your personal life and self-care, scheduling it, and sticking to it, tells your mind that you are important. You matter. And so do your health and wellbeing. If we devote time to ourselves, we generally feel good about it. Gym, physical activities, socializing, are all important to our well-being. So make it a priority to show yourself that you matter and that you are worthy of your own care and love.
3. Maintain your balance
We are complex beings who have a lot of moving parts that need our attention. Just like a car, we also need maintenance on a variety of different areas to ensure that we don't enter a state of atrophy and that we maintain a sense of balance in our lives. When we focus too much on a specific area, our other areas are neglected, and we reach a point where it invariably affects all the sections of our lives. When I neglected my emotional and physical body after my divorce, it resulted in back surgery, and months of hard recovery to get back to a point where I could feel strong and able again. That in and of itself is something that greatly affects the mind's ability to move forward and stay positive.
4. Happiness through achievement and goals
We enjoy and appreciate goals. We like to work towards something and feel a sense of achievement or accomplishment when we reach it. When you devote time to your goals through a schedule, it becomes easier to achieve them. It's how you can stand in integrity with yourself and the things that you set out to accomplish in this world. And as you're making strides, big or small, towards these, every step on the climb becomes an achievement, an accomplishment to be celebrated and learned from. It helps us to appreciate the climb, the journey, towards a destination.
When we go through particularly challenging times in our lives, and when we decide to make a change in our journeys, scheduling becomes so much more important. It's how we ensure that we stay on our path, keep putting one foot in front of the other, to ensure that we manage ourselves and our well-being to feel more secure, happy, and in charge to overcome the obstacles that are thrown our way.
You are the CEO of your journey. Make sure that you feature in it, by scheduling your life to fit your desires and goals.
At The Boulder Man, we support men in their journeys to devise a path that fits their goals. Reach out to us for more information.