Can you believe summer is half way through, or more than half way through actually. The end of my three week vacation is rushing closer and closer, and although I don’t have any issue with going back to work, I wouldn’t mind having another couple of weeks off. But then again, who wouldn’t want that.
I had quite the list of things I wanted to get done during my vacation. I mean, three weeks of free time is pretty amazing and just imagine what I could get done! I wanted to create a bunch of freebies, write articles, maybe even create some planner stickers… definitely start my YouTube channel as well as do some day trips with Fredrik and meet friends. And the list goes on and on.
If I were left to my own devices I’d probably spend all days working on that list, especially the ones relating to ForeverGoodLife. But, I probably wouldn’t have been all that productive as we all know Parkinson’s law and that work expands to fill the time available to get it done.
As you maybe can tell from what I just shared, being able to relax is not something that comes natural to me. And by relax I mean the one where you relax down to the core of your being. With not the smallest part of you feeling you ought to get something done or that you should be doing something else, more productive, instead.
To give you an example of what I mean I met up with a dear friend for lunch a while back. It was great to see her and we had a lot of catching up to do so the lunch ended up taking two hours (not including the commute). And don’t get me wrong here, I loved every minute we spent together and I got a whole lot of energy from that meeting. Although I was having a great time, somewhere inside me there was a nagging feeling that I wanted to get back home to work on my projects. I wanted to be productive. I wanted to get things done. I wanted to move forward.
Learning to relax
The way I get around this issue is to give each day, or sections of the day, a purpose – either the days purpose is to be productive, or the purpose is to relax. As simple as that.
Let’s take the last trip to Copenhagen that Fredrik and I did as an example. I marked that day as a ’relax day’ both in my bullet journal but also, and more importantly, mentally.
By doing so I knew, deep within me, that I didn’t have to make any progress on my task list, or feel like I was falling behind on my big goal, because that day wasn’t supposed to move me forward in that area.
It’s simple but it’s not easy.
It requires a mental shift that’s not always easy when you have big dreams or love the feeling of being productive. But it is possible. And it does make a difference!
How about you?
Are you also a high achiever, wanting to get things done all the time, having problems to take it easy and relax? How do you go about handling that? How do you manage to take time of, relaxing, without having a sense of ’I should be doing something else’? And if this doesn’t sound like you at all, what’s your approach to relaxing? As always, I’d really love to hear from you so hit me up on Instagram or comment below.
Love + Hugs,
Eva
I would love to hear your thoughts :)