One of the things about taking time away from your daily routine, is that it provides you the opportunity to gain some additional perspective on your life. It allows you to look at things as a whole rather than in pieces and in doing so it gives insight into what you are doing really well and where adjustments need to be made.

As I started the first few days of my vacation with food poisoning, I felt like my body was trying to send me a message. With everything I continue to add to my plate, just how much could I handle and how many things were I doing well and how many just okay? As you can tell from my previous writings, just okay has never been enough for me and it certainly isn’t how I have ever lived my life. Yet, as I get older, I am realizing that I am only human and even humans have their limitations.

There is a process I go through when I realize that I need change. I mentally lay it all out on the table as the pieces of a puzzle. Then one by one I start to put the pieces back together again. If they fit then they stay a part of the puzzle. If they have lost an edge or broken off a part and no longer fit into the holes that were designed for them, then they get tossed and I continue to put the rest of the pieces together until finally I have a new and fresh puzzle. It contains some of the old pieces along with some of the new pieces redesigned. When I look at it again as a whole, I have gained new perspective and proceed to put the new plan in place.

Evaluating each piece of my puzzle allows me to rebalance my life to something that fits a little better. My first was this blog. I needed to balance the need of my readers with my ability to be creative. I also looked at how much I have been able to grow the blog. Despite many different efforts it has been very difficult to get additional readers. My old friend self doubt would make me think that what I am saying isn’t interesting and people don’t care. However, I know differently as you have told me so. Yet, I do realize that a post every day from a creative perspective and with everything else I have going on is probably unrealistic, so I have decided to take the blog to three days a week; Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That gives me a creative break in between and relieves some of the pressure of delivering, yet still provides me the emotional outlet with all of you that I have come to adore.

In life, we can choose to do a few things really well or a lot of things just mediocre. I am not a mediocre kind of guy and that is why balance is not only important, it is necessary. With a full time job, growing Bring Smiles to Seniors, the blog, the podcast and desire to still make time for family and friends, something needed to give. Down time and being away provided that perspective that I needed and sometimes just one small change brings about very positive results.

If your life is feeling a little full, try my puzzle process. It isn’t a one and done thing. I am sure on my next break I will continue to evaluate and alter until I find just the right balance. However, for today this feels right. I hope the process makes it right for you as well.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron

Mornings with Ron is now available as a podcast at anchor.fm/morningswithron or on most podcast sites.

#inspirationalposts #bringsmilestoseniors #inspirationalmessages bringsmilestoseniors.com