About a month ago…..my goodness, it was THAT long ago?! Let’s try this again. About a month ago, I went on a holiday. *gulp* Yep, a real holiday and my first overseas trip in over three years. As the Boeing 777 aircraft accelerated towards take off, I couldn’t help but think about how much my life has changed in three years. Not that I had a fear of flying and my life was flashing before my eyes. But the fact that it was my first, real holiday that extended over a week struck excitement, relief and a little fear within myself. I was so excited to be travelling again, if only for a short while. I love exploring, and now I have the best of travel buddies as my partner. I was relieved that I was eventually able to tear myself away from my work, yet I was afraid of being disconnected for such a time.
Wow.
Three years ago I was contemplating a future as an information professional, having completed a graduate certificate in business information management. I was entering a new phase of my life, I knew that for certain, but I didn’t think I would be where I am today. And I definitely didn’t think I’d be so involved in my profession and loving it! Much to my detriment in some respects, indicated by my fear of doing another thing I loved to do – travel. Not to worry as I’ve learnt a lot from this experience.
Being passionate about my work and involvement in the profession tends to lead me to taking up opportunities and projects. Therein lies a (developing) ability of striking a delicate balance. It’s like I had all these balls up in the air, then I left and they all fell to the ground. I did not anticipate such a long time to gather them back up again after my holiday. I came home completely overwhelmed by what I had to catch up on. I mean, far out, I’ve only just booked myself in again for pilates class and set up my membership for a rock climbing gym.
So far this year I’ve done well in working on balancing my personal and professional lives, but arriving home again just made it all too clear how far away I am from achieving and maintaining this balance. The planning I did at the beginning of the year, as well as my task manager, certainly helped me to identify where I was at with things. These are strategies I’ll stick with, but did not completely relieve me from a cluttered mind in getting things done quickly upon my return. And I hate clutter. In the last few weeks, I’ve often felt frustrated about not being able to finish tasks….completely. Like down to the small things such as filing and keeping my document files tidy on my computer.
Returning from my holiday has instigated a couple of things. Firstly, my wanting to start a travel blog. I’ve been planning and meaning to do so for years, since my last overseas trip. I believe I’ve now got the confidence to just do it, to share my experiences, reflective thoughts and tips about travel. There is so much information out there about how to be a great travel writer and blogger that it has actually discouraged me from doing it. So screw it, I’m going to do it my way. My Twitter followers will see more of my sharing of travel articles and posting my travel blog posts. Details of my travel blog will be revealed soon. I’m really excited to be dedicating more time on my travel interest and finally living up to the “share my travel adventures” part of my Twitter bio. 🙂
Secondly, my holiday made me think about the importance of making time for hobbies, and not just reading about them, actually doing and practicing them! A refreshing and seemingly backwards way of thinking about a schedule comes from the book ‘The Now Habit’ which describes using an ‘unschedule’ for fitting in work, rather than a ‘schedule’ for fitting in leisure. Just thinking about time differently has me starting to feel more focused and eager to complete my work. My current work habits and patterns will have me running the risk of losing passion and enthusiasm for it, despite my efforts in planning everything (but we all know things never go according to plan), so by literally turning work schedules upside down, the aim here is to sustain passion, not drain it.
One step at a time. One day at a time.
This is now my mantra for the next few weeks at least. After the university semester, I’ll be de-cluttering again, having a review of things and away I’ll go again.
