I recently joined a coaching program for wellness professionals called HolisticMBA. My goal is to discover more about myself and more about how I can help even more creative people by being a better coach.
And while they’ve already taught me some profound stuff that I plan to take into my business and use in a serious way, there’s one thing I’ve learned so far that I think benefits not only me, but you as well.
On our first live group coaching call, Carey Peters mentioned something that I seriously need to do. She said:
“Let go of the expectation that you’re ever gonna get it all done”
Wow.
I mean, it seems like it’d be a no-duh kind of thing. I should already know that I’ll never get it all done.
But I didn’t know it. And I bet you don’t know it either.
We Take On So Much
As women in the world, we’re expected to do and be so many different things: friends, daughters, sisters, girlfriends, wives, employees, mothers, step-mothers, house cleaners, cooks, educators, creative writers, business owners…
It can get exhausting.
And at the end of the day, no matter how hard we try and no matter how “Superwoman” we think we are—we still can’t get it all done.
Ever.
So I agree with Carey… we need to let go of the expectation that we’ll ever get it all done.
Let go of the expectation that you’re ever gonna get it all done.
Let it go.
We Don’t Have to Get It All Done
If you really think about it, a lot of the things we do in life we do for two reasons:
- Obligation—we do things because we feel like we owe it to other people to do them (ex: cook dinner, clean the house, etc)
- Expectation—we do things because we feel like we’re expected to do them (ex: have kids, get married, buy a house, etc)
But when you spend your time doing things out of obligation or expectation, you don’t leave much room to do things out of love or passion. And it’s the things you love and are passionate about that you should be doing!
I have a better suggestion for all of us: since we can’t get it all done, we shouldn’t try.
Instead, we should focus our efforts on doing the things that are important to our lives and to our growth as creative people.
You should find the things in your life that you love to do and then do them as much as you can.
When you do stuff that you love, you’ll feel on top of the world. Even if you’re letting other less important things fall by the wayside.
For years I’ve been trying to balance way too much on one plate, and it’s getting to the point where I can’t do it anymore. I can’t keep half-assing all of my projects in hopes that something will take off. I’m spreading myself too thin trying to “get it all done,” and I realize that now.
Thanks to Carey’s wisdom and HolisticMBA, this year I’m making it my mission to spend more time doing things I love, and less time doing things I don’t love but only do because I “think I should.”
Share With Us
How will you take the advice to “stop trying to get it all done” and run with it?
