Over the last couple of nights I’ve been having trouble
sleeping. I’m sure part of it is due to the crazy summer storms racking havoc
in my desert home town. The electrons in the air have not only me, but also my
whole family feeling restless. With this comes long hours of lying in bed, eyes
closed and my mind fully awake.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a half awaken state
of mind I find my thoughts wonder to topics I normally don’t consciously think
about on a daily basis. One of the topics my mind likes to wonder to frequently
during these times are my writing goals and expectations.
Lately, I’ve been wondering if I’m truly meeting or able to
live up to the expectations I’ve made for myself as an author, editor and
mother. It seems more and more demands are put upon us as writers, and even as
editors, however the days are not longer so we sleep less. With this comes not
performing at our desired levels with less sleep so how do we balance these
demands… expectations? Then you add in family life and it seems there is no
time left in a day to get everything done you need or want to accomplish, let
alone good quality sleep. This can leave us feeling defeated, depressed, burnout…among
other feelings as well.
I recently read a blog post back in June about writer’s
needing to take
time out and relax. The post really got me thinking about how I haven’t
taken a real vacation in two years. I also started realizing my personal
writing goals keep being put on hold as demands to expectations I’ve made for
myself and freelance work keep growing. Talk about a combination for writer’s
burnout or just feeling overwhelmed with life.
I do feel my life feels meaning full, but I realize I’m not
taking time out for me. I’m not setting goals or expectations of better health.
This isn’t a good thing. So as I laid awake these past few nights with my mind
wondering onto all the things I need to do, would like to do and have
accomplished so far, I realized the only way to get some down time was to cut
back. Or in writer terms…REVISE my life, goals and expectations.
I’m not sure what changes I’ll be making but revising my
goals and expectations will be one of them.