I Want My Life Back

This is the moment that you want to climb on the chair and scream! You have just realized that everything you do is for someone else. You are running from work tasks to home tasks and chores without stopping to take 5 minutes for yourself. You have realized that not one single task actually benefits or develops you. It is time to take your life back!


Yes, life is full of challenges. Yes, family, partners, kids, community commitments all are part of life. What you choose to do versus what you actually are two completely different things. Is life thrust at you and you simply take it? Or does life throw things at you and you choose what you will catch and work with today?

Take 5 minutes, right now, and make a list of everything that you did yesterday. Put an ‘M’ next to everything from which you personally benefited. That includes driving the carpool for soccer letting you spend time with your son and his friends – that is a personal benefit.

How many made the ‘M’ list? How can you re-evaluate the ones that did not to see if an ‘M’ could be applied? Waiting for your spouse at the grocery store, while it felt like a waste of time, gave you 20 minutes to sit and think, reflect and recharge. Did you use the time that way or were you drumming your fingers on the steering wheel impatiently, getting more bothered by the minute.

I am taking the long-winded way to say something ---perhaps is not that we ‘want our lives back’, it’s that we need to look at the activity in our lives and recognize them for the positive impact they offer, not just the time they take up. Can you do that?