When Less Is Actually Enough: Find Your Sweet Spot
Life is a dance and finding your rhythm takes trying things, learning, and adjusting as you go. Your rhythm also changes over time.
We’ve touched on the fact that there is so much to do in life — how does one fit it all in?! Over time. By looking at the Big Picture and taking a long range view. Life is an endurance event after all, not a sprint!
You can wing it. You can plan it. You can do a hybrid of the two…
Let’s take travel as an example. This is a recurring theme with coaching clients. People value travel and the idea of traveling. There is a romanticism about it. Each of us has to find our own definition of what works for us (and those we travel with).
Let’s say you’re overdue for a vacation so you book a week-long trip to visit loved ones and to enjoy a warmer climate. You’re really looking forward to it. You remember the last time you took a similar trip you wished you had only stayed for half as long. This time you book lodging for a week so at least you can (both) have your own space and follow more of your own rhythms.
While you find that having your own lodging is nice, the weather isn’t ideal and 4 days in you’re thinking about home, your pet, your work, any catch up you need to do and getting back into your routine. Maybe this keeps you up until midnight. Good! Vacation worked - you’re looking forward to being back home! And maybe next time you’ll listen to yourself and only book a 4 night trip. Now ya know.
What other areas of your life, or things in your life, might also benefit from less actually being enough? Find your sweet spot! Where have societal expectations, external calendars and culture influenced how you have been living your life? What about that works for you? What about that doesn’t work for you?
Does every trip have to be one week or two weeks long?
Does every workday have to be 8+ hours long?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see whether you can actually fit more of what you want in your life by reducing what you don’t want in your life?
You get the idea!
