Reward Yourself to Refresh Yourself
If you are the typical woman, life never slows down for you. Between taking care of your work, family and personal obligations, there isn’t any time left for you. However, if you are feeling “burnt-out” you need, no, you MUST, take a personal break and reward yourself.
Here are three easy tips to refresh yourself.
- Schedule quiet time each week
- Reward yourself for your accomplishments
- Have a personal day or evening each month
Schedule quiet time each week
You can feel the pressure building up inside you. You feel yourself becoming irritated at the smallest inconvenience or problem that normally wouldn’t upset you. You are heading for a “melt down”. Time to refresh. Start by forcing yourself to schedule a quiet time each week. Literally turn off the outside world. Turn off your pager, cell phone, forward your calls, and tell whoever you need to that you will be unavailable for the next 1-2 hours and go to a place that you know you can relax and can’t be bothered. This quiet time doesn’t have to be in response to work situations; it can also be applied to a hectic week at home. Our lifestyle today is becoming more and more hectic. Every day we try to cram 36 hours into the 24 hours God gave us. Use your quiet time to reflect on thoughts that make you happy. Block out negative thinking. Do something you really enjoy. See a movie, read a book you been putting off, have a latte, it doesn’t matter what it is, just do it!
Reward yourself for your accomplishments
Set up a system where you can reward yourself when you reach an accomplishment or a goal. Many times at work we go unrecognized for some extra work we did to compete a project on time. At home, we are expected to have dinner on the table, kids in bed and still clean up, all after coming home from a 10 hour work day. At work and at home, you must set your own rewards for a job well done. These little rewards will keep the focus on the upcoming “treat” instead of the constant pressure to perform. Rewards can be something as small as a little chocolate or a latte to something as big as a “personal spa day”. Remember to set the goals or accomplishments so that they are regularly achievable so you can reap the rewards.
Have a personal day or evening each month
A person can put up with a lot if they know that they will soon have a major reward. Think about when you were a child. Did your parents tell you if you finished your vegetables (the ones you hated) you could have dessert? How many of us put up with eating those veggies just because we knew we would get ice cream?!! The same principle applies today. You can suffer through a lot if you knew that each month you could have a personal day where you could reward yourself by doing only those things that you want to do. If you stay focused on your upcoming personal day reward while going through the rigors of your life, the stress will be more tolerable. You will probably have to coordinate this day with your family or significant other. This personal day doesn’t necessarily mean doing something on your own, by all means include your family if that is what makes you happy. Here are a couple of suggestions that can be stress busters: have Dad take the kids out and you take an uninterrupted bath, go out to lunch or dinner with your best friend(s), send the kids to an overnight and go on a date with your spouse, take a bed and breakfast weekend, this list can go on and on. The important thing here is for you to do the things that will relieve your level of stress and refresh you for the upcoming days.
Remember to look forward to your rewards when the going gets tough and keep the focus on the light at the end of the tunnel to help you get through those trying days. Good luck!
(originally published 3/20/2000)
