You may have noticed that I haven’t written in a while. I’ve had a rough start to the new school year, something I didn’t account for when I was making my writing schedule. Going through divorce didn’t help either. Another reason to pursue FI – unexpected stressors. I’ve been so busy working and emotionally overwhelmed from divorce paperwork and grieving, that I haven’t had the bandwidth to keep designing my after FI life. This brings me to the topic of work/life balance. 

At my work, the demands have risen exponentially but what I failed to do is to exponentially raise my self-care time. That’s a recipe for burnout. Going to my first CampFI showed me that. Resting, hiking, attending interesting presentations and discussion groups, most importantly, hanging out with like-minded people , showed me how vital it is to take time off and surround yourself with a supportive community.

Another thing I realized was that I can’t take work as personally as I have been. It’s just work. I don’t have to finish everything and be the best at every little thing that comes my way. I can do what I can do and leave the rest of later. For some people, like myself, it is better and healthier, to leave things for later than to finish everything today. Once I allowed that realization to sink in, a world opened up within me. Then, the things that I want to do after FI floated up to my consciousness.

The current list goes like this:

Write Blog, interest courses, and fiction

Share on YouTube

Go through self-pub emails that I’ve been collecting and follow the steps

Host interest groups (FI, typology, spiritual, book clubs, writing groups, song circles)

Practice music and find places to play

Go on Artist Dates

Go to interest events (FI, non-dual, typology, writing, music)

Walk/hike/drive/fly

Self-care

Try new things (painting, travel to new place, try exotic foods)

Do fun work, if bored (Task Rabbit, Craiglist gigs, teaching reading to kids, store clerk)

Guess what? I have already started doing these things on the weekends and you can too (from your own list, of course). This opening created an opportunity for me to find a roommate after two and a half months of searching. After an Artist Date, I also discovered how much I enjoy listening to classical music live. Further still, I have been inspired to start writing a course that can help people with that tough, limbo period after break-ups. 

How about you? Has there been something you’ve been postponing? Is life overwhelm keeping you from doing what you want to do? What’s your work/life balance?