Zombie-ish

How many of you find yourself helping others more than yourself? How many of you are mentally and/or emotionally drained by the end of the day because you spent all day helping people around you instead of YOU?

I would guess many of you reading those questions could answer "me" to both of them.

When I was working full time as a Therapist, I would come home mentally and sometimes emotionally EXHAUSTED from my work. I put that word in all caps not to be dramatic, but to be accurate. Now as a SAHM, I still end most of my days very drained from the energy I put into parenting Edward and taking care of other home responsibilities. It's a different kind of drained, but overall (just like with my career) I put my heart and soul into what I do, which usually leaves me feeling worthless by 8:00pm.

Is it a problem that we are zombie-ish by our days end because we have given so much of ourselves in our careers and in our homes?  Should we feel bad when we breathe a sigh of relief when our children go to bed at night? Is it a negative thing when our brain is close to mush by dinner because we spent all day working diligently on our child saying "yes ma'am",  following directions, and reiterating anything potty related? 

NO. NO. NO. You know why?  Because this means that we are probably doing a good job in our homes and in our career. This means that we are not being lazy in the workplace or selfish as a stay at home parent.  Our exhaustion by the end of the day is PROOF THAT WE CARE ABOUT WHAT WE DO.  It is proof that we are putting a lot of effort into what we care about and that we are trying to be good at it.  We want our bosses to see our efforts and be proud of our hard work. We want our children to be raised right and to grow up being just downright good people and productive members of society.

What is a problem for us is when we dwell on what we didn't do.  When we end our day fretting over the fact that we didn't clean the bathrooms or talked to as many new customers as we had hoped-is not helpful for us. It overshadows and clouds all that we accomplished for the day. What we didn't get to for that day can always be done another time.

Help Yourself  by asking yourself this one question: Did I accomplish my top priority (not my whole to-do list) in my home or workplace for the day? Were my clients satisfied? Did I run that one errand? Were my children happy? Did my family get fed? Was I accomplished? If you can answer yes to your daily priority, then you should get plenty of rest for the night. Have a good week! :)

-Shannon