Do More of What You Love and Less of What You Don’t
May 10, 2012 in Turning Your Dream Into Reality
Original photo by Jacqueline Riman
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I am in the middle of a big growth spurt at the moment. I wake up in the morning and I know I’ll do something to get me closer to where I want to be. My “inspiration board life”. It’s all kinds of awesome.
One thing that keeps coming up in everything I’m inhaling (and believe me, I am shoveling in a hell if a lot of info right now), is to put your energy into your strengths and passions and remove yourself from the activities that drain that energy.
The first thing I did when this notion fully sank in was write myself a note: “When you earn $2000 in a week, you will hire someone to clean the house the next week”. It made me laugh. Is the first thing I’d like to get rid of in my life the cleaning? Apparently so.
Money is a funny thing. It means different things to different people. I’ve always been in the club that sees money as something that comes and goes and should be used to aid the pursuit of happiness. This is why I had very little money at 19 but had travelled around the UK and Europe for 3 months. Trade off.
It’s true that money can’t buy you happiness, but it can often buy you time. Time is more valuable than we give it credit for (hello procrastination and watching hours of reality TV) and it’s what we all crave when we talk about life balance. What is it that you really want to be spending your time on and what would you happily let go of? Are you like me and have to push away the guilts when you think about delegating to or paying someone to do your “dirty work” or the things you’d rather not do?
Creating time and space to immerse yourself in what you’re passionate about shouldn’t make you feel guilty. Imagine what you could bring to the table, the world if you had the time to prepare, to create, to get it out there!
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What is it that you’d love to spend your time doing and what would you let go of in a second to make it work?
Oh so bang on.
I’m feeling the same way about being in the middle of something awesome. I have no idea where all this is gonna take me, but I know that I’m just doing my thing, and I get to do what I love every day!
So I know I’m on the right road.
xx
You are definitely on the right path Sian – go and rock that talent of yours! xx
I totally agree about outsourcing cleaning – I don’t actually mind it too much and find it satisfying, but when I am working a full time job and earning a salary I won’t blink at hiring someone to come clean the house on a weekly basis! Would also love to outsource my grocery shopping (and will likely start doing it all online at some stage) as I HATE the grocery store, but would rather spend my time choosing my fruit and veg at the farmers markets.
Also agree that we don’t value time enough, but sometimes that winding down and mindless relaxing in front of the TV, reading blogs etc is the break that your brain needs to refresh and have space for all the creative ideas.
We have a friend that has been working on downscaling and outsourcing his whole life pretty much, has meals delivered, house cleaned, laundry done and has a virtual assistant that does all mundane administrative tasks for him – leaving him with more time to concentrate on his business and the things he loves doing. That sounds a little extreme for me but it is working for him so I suppose we are all comfortable with different levels of outsourcing ;)
I have often thought about outsourcing grocer shopping too Jasmine, but I always worry that maybe then I won’t be getting the best produce. I like to handpick mine too. I know what you mean about creating space with mindless relaxing, but I always feel like it’s a waste even if my mind might need to wind down a little.
I’m impressed by your friend outsourcing so many aspects of his life. I wish I could do that, but I’m not quite ready to relinquish quite that much control! Haha… xx
I’d outsource cleaning and laundry. I hate both.
My goal is to get my freelance work to a point where I don’t have to waste 25 hours a week working in retail to earn cashflow money. That will free up so much time for me…the frustrating thing is that five hours freelancing earns me the same as 25 hours in retail. I just need more of it to know the rent’s getting paid!
That waiting game to see when the best time to make that jump is definitely frustrating. How much time are you putting into getting your pitches out there Hannah? You almost need to start thinking of building your brand and portfolio as a second FULL TIME job to really commit to getting the wheels in motion. I know you can do it! x
Sounds like you’re on the cusp of wonderful things! It’s exciting to read your plans and share your enthusiasm. Sending you wonderful wishes, Clare!
Thank you for your beautiful and supportive comment Clare, I really appreciate it. x
I’m loving this idea of doing more of what we love and less of what we don’t!
I love the creating and blogging aspects of my life. They’re so much fun. If I could hire an assistant, though, I would happily pay someone to do all that pesky Facebook and Twitter stuff for me! It drains away my time *and* my energy.
Thanks for stopping by Sarah! I can see why you say social media drains your time and energy, it is certainly very time consuming and connecting with people can be emotionally draining. Simply tell yourself WHEN you hire an assistant, not if. Manifest that dream! ;) x