Sustainable - Lessons learned the hard way

My writing style is still feeling forced and in brain freeze mode, but there is work to be done!

What I learned over the past few weeks is my current way of "functioning" was NOT sustainable.  I was doing well balancing everything that needed done - work, school, house, crafting - and then the final straw landed at my feet.  This caused many near sleepless nights, leading to disrupted days.  This snowballed over the other stuff making even simple things seem overwhelming and difficult.

I had hit the proverbial brick wall - crashed and was burning.

That's how I describe this past week.  During this "crash and burn" week, I realized I had let some things take too much of my time, while letting other things slip and get pushed aside.  Some of these things weren't a big deal - others were.

I have limited amounts of time and energy.  It all gets spent.  It's time for me to refocus what I can onto what I want the focus to be on.  I must learn to live within my means - not only in the financial sense, but time, energy, focus, talent, desire.  I must determine - once again - what is important to me, discarding that which does not fit within.

How to find the balance? Learn the words Sustainable and Simplify!

I had a saying early last week:

When my cup got full, I grabbed a saucer.  Then I grabbed a soup bowl.  I have since added a salad plate and a main course plate.  I now say, "skip the tableware - perhaps I now just need to go straight to the trough!"

If we are blessed with an unending supply of time and energy, perhaps the trough is okay.  However, even then it is likely to still be messy.  The reality of life is there is a limited supply of both time and energy.  When our focus, our time and energy, is split in too many directions, everything suffers.  However, there are things we can do to help bring a bit of balance to the scene and alleviate some of the stress and the energy drain - or at least be sure it is spent on the right things!  To accomplish this, there are a few things we need to keep in mind.

SUSTAINABLE - Able to be sustained.  SUSTAIN: to support the weight of

SIMPLIFY - The word "simplify" is a verb and requires action.  It means to make less complicated, clearer, easier

Each area of life can be asked these questions:

1.  Can current resources (time, energy, funds, etc.) support what is being done or what we want to do?
2.  Are there ways to make an area (function, activity, job, etc.) less complicated or easier?

These are the two questions I'll be using as I move forward - trying to unravel a bit of the mess and chaos and hopefully, finding a bit of peace and clarity.