166 Days To Go

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It’s July 18th. There are only 166 days left in this year.

Go ahead. I’ll let you process that. 166 days. A lady at work comments, “Didn’t the year just start a few weeks ago?” It feel like it. But the fact is, nope. It started over seven months ago.

What do you have to show for it?

Seriously. What have you done so far?

Every January we see the lists, the promises, the resolutions. Our Facebook feed is filled with hope and dreams for a beautiful new start. And by February, those bright, colorful dreams have all faded into a great, big, gray bucket of suck. You’re back at job, grinding away, wishing for the weekend.

By the time the weekend comes around, you’re too busy or tired to do anything. You’re cramming in the kids’ activities, cleaning, and all the other stuff you don’t have a chance to do when you get home at night. You’re rushing around, trying to save time because there’s never enough time.

For what? What’s the end goal?

You are not serving any good being that stressed out. You’re family and work will suffer. You will suffer. Stress is bad. And I’m probably not helping by telling you all this. You’re probably reading this, thinking about all the things you should be doing as opposed to sitting and reading this. Soccer, ballet, that report is due, back to school shopping, grocery shopping, need to make a grocery list, need to make a budget, pay bills, AHHHHHHH!!!!!

OK. Take a breath. It’s not all that bad. There’s still time. But, not all that much, so make the most of what you’ve got. Which, by the way, you don’t know how much that is. So, start figuring out what’s important.

Hint: Not everything is important. Not everything is a life and death decision.

Another hint: You don’t have to do everything. If you’re lucky enough to have a partner, delegate some responsibility to them.

And did you forget your kids? Why else did you have them other than to have someone to do the dishes and take the trash out? They asked for the cat, make them clean the box.

Here’s another hint: Say NO! Stop trying to be everything for everyone. Stop saying yes when you want to say hell no. There is nothing wrong with telling people no. In fact, it’s good for you. Look at toddlers. They tell people no all the time and everyone thinks they’re cute and gives them things. I want to tell people no and get a cookie. Make this a thing.

The biggest thing I need to drive home is make time for yourself, and that means your dreams. You’re doing all this planning and hustling. Plan and hustle for your dreams and future. You build in soccer and scouts time, plan some writing time. Schedule painting time. Make time. You’ve been working at saving time all this time. Now, it’s time to spend that time doing something that will leave you a legacy.

That includes family time. Mom and kid time. Couple time. And alone time.

You have 166 days left to make good on those January promises. What are you going to do with this time?