As we are mid way through Summer I am stopping & evaluating how my family is doing so far. Are my kids happy? Is my husband satisfied? Does my boss feel I am doing a great job? It could go on and on. However, recently I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Manic Mommies. I heard the co-hosts talking about taking time for yourself, making yourself a priority, making sure your needs are being met.
And that is when the bells went off in my head. I talk about prioritizing yourself all the time, but I realized I was completely negating that tactic for myself. I am not saying yes to the best. I had been feeling more and more stressed and just thought is was the stress of Summer. But, now I realize it is because I am not prioritizing myself, my needs are not being met.
This is a tough thing for me to verbalize because I immediately think of my spouse. Will he feel bad? Will he feel guilty that my needs are not being met? BAM! I’m doing it again. I’m concerned with how he is going to feel or handle my feelings. I am very fortunate to have a understanding and caring spouse. He is always concerned about me, about my feelings. The problem is I am not communicating my needs to my family. I am trying to do it all, do it all well & I continue suppressing the angst I feel.
I believe that my family will not succeed if I am not succeeding. What does success look like for my family? I am not sure, I think it changes from time to time.
So, what can I do? I have made a decision to take some time to evaluate what can be ignored, what needs to go on the back burner & what needs to be dropped all together. Easier said than done.
So here is my question for you:
How do you define success for yourself or your family? How often do you measure that?
Until next time!
I think mom’s take on the burden of making sure everyone around them are content and we just forget to take notice of how we feel. Then when we suddenly remember that we are a priority too, and we can go a bit overboard. There has to be a way to constantly keep your own health and needs in your mind so you don’t let yourself get run down or go through cycles of ME ME ME. I know I struggle with this one too!
Hi Christina! Great topic and one a lot of women are probably thinking about. For me, the opinion that matters most is God’s. So my priority is first and foremost always spiritual, but there’s so much to that. It means keeping my mind healthy, as well as my body, and being a kind, forgiving person, helping out, keeping my finances straight (or trying to) and last but not least being an excellent mother, daughter, sister, friend, etc. Yet the funny thing is that when I’m working toward just one real goal, and for me that is honoring God but I know that it’s different for others, the other things fall into place.
And I measure that success constantly!
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