Learn to be patient - your to do list is not always the priority
This week has been a real challenge with the little one. Since we cam back from Spain he has been teething and is extremely on edge. I now understand what it means to be there for a child and to really comfort them through this difficult time. The downside when something like this happens – you can out your to do list for the day right into the bin. Just pretend it does not exist. Now, for someone that is very organized and loves to plan such as myself this is something extremely difficult to do. But the great thing is you don’t have a choice in the matter – children teach you patience and you better learn it and be prepared to scrap your to do list for the day.
A lot of us live by to do lists. They help us get organized and make me always feel incredibly productive. There is nothing better than being able to tick things off your to do list. It is a great feeling to be able to get things done which is why many of us like those lists so much. To do lists are therefore generally a good thing – the trouble starts if we cannot achieve everything, we want to on our to do list for the day.
The question here is, how do we react when we realize we have too many things on our list, or we feel overwhelmed with all the tasks at hand. The key here of course is, not to put too many things on that list in the first place and make sure we are realistic about the things we can achieve. For example, when I used to have a lot of things on my to do list in a day, with a child I almost always cut that in half. Simply because the child needs all my attention first. It is therefore very important to be realistic on what we can achieve and not to get overwhelmed.
Secondly, and that for myself is certainly the hardest, we need to learn to be patient and flexible with us to dos. If you are a person who values being organized extremely high like myself, that can be very difficult as very often we feel like not achieving our daily goal is a personal failure on our side. However, it might help to change perspective here. For example, if we have not done our garden one day, maybe however we have comforted our child during a very difficult time in their life. That is after all certainly an achievement. Now, that might not have been one on our to do list, but it certainly is one to mention and they will credit it to us at the end of the day.
Therefore, learn to be patient. It is good to have to do lists and to organize your life through them. However, do not get overwhelmed. You will do those tasks eventually but maybe take a bit longer with it then you intended to. That does not mean you are lazy, but just prioritized other tasks at hand like comforting your child. This is just as important. Motherhood and life teaches us patience sometimes – we all will and have to learn it. Most importantly, try to also enjoy the moment a little and do not only live from one to do list to the next. Life is too short for that – enjoy the ride along a little as well.
