Give yourself a break

Like many teenagers when I was around 15 years old I went through a period where I thought I knew it all, ask me anything and I had the answer. I thought I was Gandalf, but there was one underlying factor that I didn’t consider at the time, I was totally self absorbed. 

This was evident when my mum would buy something for herself and I would ask her what I would get because I felt I deserved something too. Mum would respond ‘I work hard and I think I deserve it’, my youthful wisdom picked up that that particular conversation was over.

Without knowing it my mum was teaching me a lesson in that situation and it is a lesson that I’ve kept to this day. The lesson is that it is ok to be easy on yourself and treat yourself sometimes. A lot of people in today’s world are what I call ‘doers’, they have created lives where they have to be doing something 24/7 and if they aren’t they feel they are letting themselves or others down. They live in a place where if they feel guilty if they aren’t “doing”.

‘Doers’ often get to this place because they have achieved a lot through hard work and have often had to sacrifice a few things along the way.  As they learn how ‘doing’ leads to success they feel they have to ‘do’ more to be successful. The only problem with this is often they pull away from habits and activities which are healthy for them. They don’t relax and read a book or they skip coffee with a friend because something else takes priority. 

We all need down time and social ways to relax. If you know you are a ‘doer’ and you have guilt when you aren’t doing, give yourself a break and tell yourself you deserve it. Now that's something worth doing. 

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