David and I had some long chats last night. We are so busy right now. Actually, scratch that: I am so busy right now. And it was getting to him. I think I’d been trying to ignore my busy level, and the flashing warning signs that come along with the rise of busy, but last night my vision-bubble of super-calm, super-organized, has-it-all-together mom was ever so graciously burst.
It probably needed bursting.
It’s never possible to “do it all”, and the reality check on “doing it all” is realizing what’s not getting done.
In the course of conversation, David asked me WHY? Why am I doing all this? Why am I speaking, traveling, and saying yes to so much? And I woke up asking myself this morning.
If I take it back to my mission, I can say that I’m doing all this because I want to glorify God, authentically. I want to exemplify the power of choices and change to my kids. I want to show love with gratitude and creativity.
But there is more than one way to skin a cat, as the old saying goes. God can be glorified in the laundry and the dishes and a burned dinner. The power of choices and change can be exemplified by saying NO, instead of YES all the time. Love can be practiced from a blog, and doesn’t always demand that I attend a blog conference to have (incredible) meaningful conversation.
The conversation turned to balance, and I explained to him how I was using my Year Designer to set balanced goals for the year. This helped.
This morning, however, as I reviewed the conversation in my head, when that WHY question popped up again, my answer was a little bit different:
I can’t help it. Sounds like an excuse, I know, but I have all these ideas in my head every day, just desperate to get out, land on something, apply themselves, become reality. My family may give me good and great cause to slow down, and focus on balance, and a failed company may bring on second guesses and doubt, but the fact of the matter is: you can take the girl out of the dream, but you can’t take the dream out of the girl.
I get the “why” question from my hubby all the time too. Love this post.
The quote picture says it best!!
Hey Whitney, Thanks for such an honest post. Balancing is hard especially when the internet is on 24 hours a day. I too feel like there are a millions ideas that I have to get out of my head. It is empowering in a way to have somewhere to put them and I think that is what keeps me at least trying to take on anything and everything. It was great meeting you at Alt and I love your blog. xx
THAT is exACTly it! I think I’m going to print this and stick it on my board. 🙂 Thanks for being so awesome, Whitney.
Follow your heart! I love your passion and how you inspire others. Your planner is awesome! 🙂
thank you for this. my husband and i are having the same discussions. when many say just stop. why. there is something inside of me called passion and a dream. much like yours.
Wow, this is exactly what’s going on in my life lately. I just recently started my own design studio and I’ve been working like crazy. The thing is though, I CAN’T help it. And my fiancĂ© senses that I’m always thinking and dreaming and going at it 24/7. Even when I get overwhelmed and vent to him, he’ll ask me to just take some days off and let it go, but I don’t want to. This is all I ever think about/dream about. I couldn’t turn it off if I tried!
Glad to hear someone else talking about the difficulties of entrepreneurship and being a creative individual. Most blogs these days tend to focus on the positive and position themselves as experts in every possible way. It’s nice to see someone showing that they’re human. Thank you! What a breath of fresh air.
Wow. Thought provoking. Thanks!