Don’t Get Left Behind
Updated: Nov 27, 2018
When we get busy as most of us do in our daily lives it is difficult to juggle and manage everything effectively and still prevent things from falling to the wayside. This can manifest itself in different ways: with ourselves we can eliminate time to provide self-care for our needs, with our friends we can negotiate with ourselves that we can and will catch up with them later and maybe we never find the time to actually do that, with our relationships or family we might justify that since they are so close to us in terms of relationships that they will forgive us or that they will be okay without us being there this time or that time and this can also be counterproductive or harmful.
My career? What am I supposed to do?
I've worked with clients that made six figures annually and were miserable, although the money was great they never had time to spend any of it, time to enjoy or appreciate it, or anything around them. They missed birthdays, gatherings, and important events. Ultimately they regretted not having the time back to go to that soccer game or that recital instead of another business meeting overseas.
The impact of lack of awareness
As an example we can get so focused by a company objective, annual fiscal goals, and revenue building that we in a sense get consumed by these events, so much so that we lose our sense of peripheral vision for connecting with others. This makes us vulnerable to risk which in turn doesn’t serve our best interests.
Value in expanding self-awareness
For us to grow, sustain ourselves emotionally, embrace ever changing events around us, and the people we love we need to increase our vision. By increasing our vision we can boost our self-awareness, acceptance of others, accommodation for more in our lives, and move toward a path that facilitates a greater quality of life and fulfillment.
The importance of work-life balance
There are relationships in our lives that bring us value. A daughter, a son, a spouse, a sibling, and a parent in all of these cases these are extremely important connections to us as individuals, they give us something to push for, work harder for, and sacrifice for. But what if we push so hard that we don’t leave enough room to include them in our lives? This is why it is important to negotiate, negotiate with ourselves in acceptable limits that are respectful to you and your loved ones, negotiate with your loved ones where if you have to make that trip to overseas for several months that when you return you can take a vacation with them to reunify with them as a family unit or whatever the case may be.
Putting it all together
When we have work life balance we can appreciate others in a deeper sense, see details in those relationships and within ourselves that we would have missed had we not invested the time in this capacity, and increase compassion for others and ourselves. These are all components or pieces if you will and when you put them together consistently you create a recipe for being able to care for yourself and for others which prevent you or your loved ones from being left behind.
Daniel Acosta M.A., AMFT is a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist in Mission Viejo, California. He works with men, women and adolescents and provides individual, couples, pre-marital, family and marital therapy for clients in Orange County. If you would like to schedule a session he can be reached at 949-793-7949 or via email at daniel.acosta@therapysolutionstoday.com