Today I decided to take most of the day off because I worked all last weekend freaking out about my Pecha Kucha talk.
Even though I’ve been working very long days while I’ve been in Bali (someone tear me away!), I STILL feel a pang of guilt for not working today.
What is that?!
Why do we work our asses off and then still feel guilty chilling out for a minute?
Why do we even feel we have to “earn it” before we take a break?
I think this is especially the cause for women. We’re working to prove ourselves in some way. Usually to ourselves more than anyone else.
I always tell myself I’ll give myself a break/ an evening off after a long day of coaching, but then I work a bit more, and then a bit more, and then it’s 11pm and I’m cooking green beans for dinner because that’s all I have and I just got home. How’s that for self care?
As soon as we accomplish one thing the mind says, Ok great, well done and stuff, NEXT!
Til we’re 101.
I think for most of us it stems back to a time in our childhood where something really random happened (traumatic or trivial) and we decided that we were “not good enough” in some way.
I decided I wasn’t pretty enough, popular enough, funny enough, charismatic enough.
So I tried to make up for it by working hard and achieving, which has become a pattern throughout my life.
But no amount of work is ever “enough” because enough is a concept of the mind- what is enough? There is no such thing!
It’s a pretty weird word actually, I don’t like it.
So give yourself a break, do something nice for yourself, take the day off, even if you haven’t done “enough”.
And just ride out the feelings of guilt or discomfort until you’re lying in a deckchair overlooking a rice paddy and damn well enjoying yourself!
