One of my friends and I were laughing right around the holidays because she found herself bored for what might have been the first time in her entire adult life. She was flipping through channels, had exhausted all the shows she wanted to watch on Netflix, but with no place to go due to COVID, she really didn’t know what to do with herself. And she hated every minute of it.
This feeling is so rare because most of us live in a world where our To Do List is never done. Yet, our inclination is to think that something is wrong with our list continuing to grow at a faster rate than we can actually get things done. What if we allowed ourselves to accept the fact that everyday we are going to make progress, but that work will always continue to be added? That having an empty “To Do List” is actually a bad thing. How much stress could we remove from our life if we weren’t constantly telling ourselves that it shouldn’t be this way?
I get it, my first inclination is to resist and reject. My mind is screaming “There has to be a middle ground!” But what if there just isn’t? What if the ever running list is just a fact and we get to decide what to do with it and how to feel? I would prefer not to choose stress. I’m not a huge fan of it, especially when I’m putting it on myself.
Instead, I can decide that I will do as much as I can and the rest will wait. This allows me to set boundaries for self-care and to get my sleep, while showing up fully for the time I allot for work. It means not wasting energy beating myself up over what I didn’t get done, knowing that I’m working to the max of my ability but not overextending myself into burnout. It allows me to continue forward, but not at the extent of my well being.
The tasks will always be there, it’s what you choose to do with your own thoughts, that will determine whether they add stress or simply exist as part of your life.