Hi Reader,
Remember the elderly friend from the previous post? She called me today and we spent 45 minutes on the phone. The first five minutes were spent talking about her health and how she’s settling in. She asked about her cat and when we’ll meet. You know, the usual!
(Her memory seems to be improving surprisingly well!)
The following 40 minutes on the phone were spent with her asking whether I was looking after myself. It turns out I couldn’t visit her today. I had two sessions, the second one being incredibly long, so I finished my day at about 6pm. I started working at 8am and it’s now past 10pm as I’m writing this to you. (In case it helps, I usually love every bit of my day!)
And yet that raised a red flag for her.
She knew I was working a bit too much.
“When was the last time you took a whole day to yourself? To just sit down, make a cup of coffee, and do nothing all day?”, she asked me.
Oh man! I had no excuse, and also no plausible answer to that question. It had been long enough that I genuinely couldn’t remember the last time it happened! lol
So she carried on, telling me to slow down and be very mindful of my own efforts, to make sure I’m not spreading myself too thin. “Like butter”, in her own words.
Her legitimate (and very reasonable!) concern about me heading down the burnout route allowed me to reflect a bit on what my role has been ever since I launched my business almost four years ago.
The people I serve are generally the ones who are stretched too thin.
The ones who look after everyone else but themselves.
The ones who are too busy to rest.
And too tired to look after themselves.
The ones who pour from an empty jug.
Burnout comes easily to people like them; to people like me.
We love serving and feel guilty when we need a break. And guilt hits hard.
I haven’t been doing the best job of taking a whole day off for myself, although I have mastered the art of taking daily micro-moments to relax and just be present. Maybe these snippets will add up and help me refill my jug, one tiny drop at a time?
The fact is: we all need a break.
We all need rest.
We all need to switch off, even if just a little bit.
No excuses. No guit.
If you don’t do this for yourself, if you don’t look after your own health, both physical and mental, eventually you won’t have a single drop left to pour from your jug.
So please, look after yourself.
And remember my friend’s wise words, which honestly felt like a little kick up my backside:
"If you don't look after yourself, you're bloody useless to everybody else!"
– C. B.
I’ll say it again: look after yourself.
Please.
With positivity (and gratitude for being reminded that rest is just as important as work),
Lucy
ps: If this conversation resonated with you, or if you know someone who could do with this reminder, please forward them this email or share the link to this newsletter: https://positivelysimple.kit.com/
