Writers, Do You Juggle or Balance Your Life?
Happily, The Choice is Yours!
As writers, we all juggle many things in our lives. Not only do we have home responsibilities, but we may also have 9–5 job responsibilities. Then we WRITE — rough drafts, edited drafts, final drafts. Add submissions in the mix — where, when and how as we bend our timing to fit. Of utmost importance is good record keeping for it all!
We do just fine as long as our juggling is in balance.
Let’s define juggling and balancing:
Juggling the responsibilities and joys of our lives require perfect timing. Our hands are full. Every moment is packed. Then your responsibilities and hours at work increase or you have a new tight writing deadline. All comes crashing down around you. The perfect juggling act has become a disaster area.
Balancing the responsibilities and joys of our lives, however, require timing and flexibility. Our hands are empty enough to allow for the emergency, the interruption and the hundreds of circumstances that can change which affects our direction.
Leaving empty spaces within the day means we are AVAILABLE for something that God may have planned for us. If every minute of every day is full, it’s time to create some availability. Something amazing may happen!
Please ask yourself: Are you juggling or balancing your life?
After you have thoughtfully answered that question, ask yourself
Why Do I Hurry and Allow Imbalance?
Perhaps this will help so that you can bring your entire life in balance once again. Your writing will reflect your balanced stance.
Eleven Reasons Why We Hurry
1. Did you hear “Well done” ?
Many of us were raised by parents who were not taught to tell us “Well done”. If we received a B on a report card, we weren’t told how proud they were of us, we were challenged to strive for the A. Here we are 20, 30, 50 years later and we find ourselves hurrying and scurrying around still trying to earn that “Well done”.
2. Are you driven?
Many feel good about themselves only through their accomplishments. They are not content with who they are as a person. Thus, they strive to climb the career ladder at work, head as many community committees or volunteer for a multitude of responsibilities at their place of worship. As writers, they strive to produce more, submit more and write a book on the side. They are driven to accomplish more and more so that they can feel better about themselves.
3. Are you preoccupied with symbols of accomplishment?
They want their articles on Medium to be Boosted Every. Single. Time. They want more followers, claps and comments. They want a bigger house, a nicer car and fancier furnishings which show how successful they are.
There is nothing wrong with trying to better ourselves and our circumstances. Driven people, however, tend to go overboard and become preoccupied with the symbols of their accomplishments, always needing MORE.
4. Are you a stressaholic?
Adrenalin in our body is a socially acceptable drug. A stressaholic thinks they must finish one more thing and then they can relax. They then go on, however, to the next project without a break. They believe that they must be constantly productive. Thus, they continue to push day after day seeking perfection. They can’t stop. They are hooked on a high level of adrenalin — they are addicted to stress.
5. Are you trying to look important?
As we hurry and scurry and puff our way through our busyness, others stand back and think, “How important they must be, look how FAST they’re going!” Even if no one is watching, their imaginary audience is cheering them on. They respond by going faster to please them.
6. Are you trying to make yourself indispensable?
By having your writers’ group, household, work projects, and committees depend totally on you, subtly you are striving to gain power by making yourself indispensable.
Also, sometimes we have friends who take, take, take but never give back. Are you unavailable to those who mean the most to you because you’ve made yourself indispensable to some who want to use you?
7. Are you trying to avoid responsibilities?
By being too busy, unwanted responsibilities and unpleasant tasks are pushed into the background. Many would rather be President of the Society to Preserve Societies than to quietly, day in and day out, care for an ailing elderly parent or to edit an article.
8. Are you avoiding new experiences or change?
It is much easier to be busy doing familiar tasks than to learn new skills or have new experiences. Have you noticed that there are new technologies out there? Have you explored their capabilities? Also, there are classes to take, new books and Medium articles to read, new skills to learn and new people to meet. Our busyness can prevent the addition of new experiences in our lives.
9. Are you avoiding everyday home responsibilities?
By being too busy, we can shirk our home responsibilities of caring for our families. Meal preparation, laundry or cleaning isn’t done or done well. It is easier and more fun to write that new article than to do the seemingly mundane.
10. Are you making yourself unavailable?
By being too busy we can hedge ourselves in with busyness so that we are unavailable to those around us. It takes far less time and energy to have a surface relationship with someone than it does to establish a loving, caring relationship which gains depth through the years.
11. Are you trying to ease guilt?
By being too busy, we can try to ease some of the guilt we feel because we sense that our life is too easy. Every day we are bombarded with the latest tragedies in our world — bombings, train derailments, deadly storms…. In comparison, our corner of the world seems quite plush.
Do you see yourself in any of these reasons why YOU allow imbalance?
“This is what the Lord says —
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.”
Isaiah 48:17
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