Doing It All

I can't do it all. You can't do it all, either. We must learn to ask for help. Our families are not mind readers. They will not know what needs to be done around the house. But you know. So, we must ask for help and delegate some of the work. 

But it's soooo haaaarrrrrd to ask for help.

I want to prove to everyone that I can do it myself.  And do it the best. And do it the most. Without breaking. (Yeah, I'm the firstborn, a girl and all that...) But guess what comes with pride? Yep. A fall. And I've fallen. Flat on my face. A couple of times. (Or maybe it's a couple more than that...)

I tend to over commit myself. Not necessarily to causes or anything like that, but just get involved in too many things for my own good or that of my family. And I also procrastinate. When I was a teenager that worked for me-some of my best papers were written the NIGHT before they were due-research papers. From start to finish! That is insane-I realize that now-but it worked. But, then I didn't have kids that needed me to be at my best. I could be single minded about one thing when it needed to be done. If I tried to do something of that magnitude right now in my life, I can guarantee someone would wake up vomiting at 12am when I was working on the paper. And then I would be frustrated and not at my best for either thing that needed to be done.

Anyways, you can only do so many things on your own and in a certain amount of time (yes, I am learning!).

So, here's what I've learned:

• Take on only what you can do well. Your hand doesn't need to shoot up EVERY time someone has an "opportunity" to serve or help. No matter how important it is.
• Allow time for problems to arise. Usually (in my experience) if you've allowed time for them they won't happen-problems that is-but if you didn't allow for disaster IT WILL HAPPEN. 
• Think about who else will be affected by your decision to take certain things on. As well as how it will affect those around you if you don't allow enough time to finish before your deadline (I'm ashamed to say my family has heard me yelling at crunch time)