The time stealers post was written for a few friends who know who they are, and we have talked about the “time stealers” in our lives, none of you are time stealers for me, i value your friendships so please dont think i was saying ANY of you were time stealers to me, I thought I made it clear in my post, but maybe I didnt. I love you all, you mean the world to me ok?
(Important Disclaimer to All My Friends: THIS IS NOT ABOUT ANY OF YOU!!!!!! YOU ARE ALL MY FRIENDS, YOUR THERE FOR ME, I’M THERE FOR YOU, SO YOUR NOT TIME STEALERS!!!!!!!)
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967)
I wrote a little bit about my plan for success, for following your dreams. I mentioned time stealers, but didn’t go into detail so I wanted to define it for you all. Time stealers are things that hold you back from a goal or dream. They come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. They can come steal your time in the form of people, bad habits, inanimate objects pretty much anything can be a time stealer if YOU let it.
The first and biggest time stealers are our own Worry and Regret. If you think about it logically, neither make any sense. What good is spending time worrying about the future? You can plan for it, but worrying isn’t planning, it serves no purpose. You sit there and say what if this happens, what if that happens. What does that do? Is it effective in anyway? What about regret? Why waste time kicking your own ass? We all make mistakes, we are all human, seems to me when we make a mistake, the best use of our time would be to fix the mistake, learn from the mistake and move past the mistake. Dwelling on it wont help, it wont change what’s already done, so why do we waste our time going over and over it in our minds thinking about what we could have done differently. You did it, its over learn from it, fix it if you can, and move on. You aren’t doing yourself or anyone else any favors by dwelling on it.
The second biggest time stealer in our lives are the drama magnets. You know who they are, we all have them, they disguise themselves as friends, but they suck every drop of energy and time we have that we can spend on other things with problems that are either imagined or self created. Now we all have friends also that go through there share of bad luck, that’s not what I am talking about. These people are self absorbed, you will know, they aren’t really your friend, but your theirs. They might even say some of the right things at first that make you think they care. They don’t, its not their fault, its not in their make up to care about anything other than themselves. At most to them you’re an after thought, something to think about when they run out of things to think about themselves for a few seconds, then they remember, and its back to ME ME ME again. They come to you with their drama, and they ask your advice, so you give it, and either they tell you why it wont work, or they ignore you and continue with their problems, poor me poor me. Or sometimes it’s the opposite, you get the aren’t I great speech. Listen to what I do what I have done what I am going to do, I am so special, you need me, tell me you need me etc etc etc. Its ok to spend a limited amount of time on these people, they need friends too, but remember, ever minute you spend on these people, who do nothing for you, is a minute your NOT spending working on your goals and dreams. Ask yourself, is it worth it? Are they worth it? The answer lies within you no one can tell you what to do or who you should be friends with, but you need to weigh everything carefully when budgeting your time, its much like budgeting your money. So when you spend time with these people, be realistic with yourself, consider it throwing dollar bills out the window because that’s how much good its doing you. When your friends with someone, its an equal thing. It may not always be 50/50, sometimes its 20/80 or 40/60, but it evens out. THAT is the difference between a friend and a time stealer, it will never even out.
The third time stealers are inanimate objects. Video games, the computer, TV, sometimes the phone, they are time stealers. When budgeting your time, factor in free time, we all need some down time, and these activities are fine for free time, and of course two need to be utilized in most professions for business purposes, but they need to be limited. Its so easy to get caught up in them and spend hours when it only feels as if minutes have passed, so we need to consciously make an effort to avoid getting carried away with them when we could be doing something more productive.
I guess the bottom line is carried away. Schedule yourself some down time to do whatever it is that relaxes you and makes you happy, but avoid getting carried away with these and other time stealers. They offer no benefits, you will reap no rewards, and often times hurt yourself. We are the only ones responsible for ourselves, for our dreams and ambitions. When your makin millions doing what you enjoy, you can sit around and waste whole days if your so inclined, until then, stay on track, keep yourself focused, and you will make it happen.
Well its been a pretty uneventful weekend. I had some issues that have been bothering me, but truthfully, I feel much better after talking some things out, and I dont feel like theres a knife in my back anymore lol.
I got a few things done around the house, made some apple cinnamon muffins with the kids, tonite I cooked a great meal the kids really liked, and the kitchen looks better than it had in weeks, so I feel like I have gotten alot accomplished.
Halloween is coming up on Tuesday, and I am going to have a little red power ranger and a Bratz doll (very appropriate as of late) I always have fun with them, but it does take alot out of me, I hope it doesnt rain this year as it has the past two. We also have parent teacher conferences on Thursday. I am a bit apprehensive about the boy lol, he comes home with stories about getting into trouble alot, so I really want to hear the teachers side of things. I am sure my daughters teacher will tell me the same things I normally hear. No one has trouble with her but me it seems lol, I get the attitude.
Spoke with my sister this week, first time really since August, we had a falling out over something I dont really know. Hard to apologize when you’ve not done anything. Whatever it was I hope its over now, and I look forward to seeing my new niece 
I want to say a BIG Thannk you to all my friends who have been visiting and leaving comments. Your input is greatly appreciated and I value your thoughts so please keep them coming! I love you guys!!!
Til next time I have something to say lol…….
Ok, everyone who knows me knows its been a VERY stressful week for me. Between the kids, Mom, work, and my extra curricular activities, I feel like Stretch Armstrong, being pulled in every different direction. (That was a real character right? Do you all know who I am talkin about? Lol) I don’t know that I could have done anything differently but I need to find a way to cut down on the stress in my life.
People with Fibromyalgia handle stress differently. Its not just a thing we can sit down for a few minutes and think calm thoughts and it will dissipate. Stress gets into our bodies, it gets into our already foggy brains, and it makes us flustered, confused and frustrated. So our normal achey bodies and foggy brains get even more achier, and um, foggier lol. We cant think, we hurt worse than our normal hurt, and we have all these thoughts we don’t know what to do with. We cant figure out what the next step we want to do is. We know things need to be done, but we don’t know what, and even if we know what needs to be done, we don’t know how to do it. I for one cant handle it so I do what most people would consider to be the chickens way out, I use the avoidance technique. I just ignore the problems, tell myself everything is fine, and move on. But inside I know its not, inside I know I need to be a grown up and face it, so I get cranky.
Unfortunately this week has been no different. Starting with some left over stress from last week, I ignored it, positive I could get past it, positive I could forget (well not forget, get past though) as easily as I forgave. In my defense, I might have been able to if it hadn’t been one thing after another this week. Then again, when isn’t it one thing after another? I realized this week that I don’t handle stress as well as I did before the Fibro hit. Now I rely on my relaxation techniques, meditation, quiet time and pills. I hate that. It used to be a minute or two alone I was ready to take on the world, and its probably one of the things that piss me off the most about Fibro. Now no matter what I do its constant stress, any little thing adds to it until I feel like the weight of the universe is on my shoulders. Besides annoying me, it affects me physically now, I often feel drained, my head aches, my shoulders are tight, my stomach is doing constant back flips (and front flips and side flips) and I am cranky (a fact that I admit grudgingly).
I just wonder sometimes why, you know? I think that there is a reason for everything, but some things I cant figure out. I try and look at the positive of everything. Fibromyalgia has changed the way I look at life. No longer do I think I am invincible, no longer do I think that I will be young for ever. It has taught me the value of the time I have, and not to waste it on regret or something as equally useless, anger and hatred. Most people don’t learn the true value of the time they have until its too late, so I am thankful I have learned the lesson early enough to spend the extra time with the kids, to stay for one more push on the swing, to squeeze them that extra second.
It has taught me to prioritize. To realize what things can wait and what cant. Sometimes we think oh I’ll do that tomorrow. Well while we still have tomorrow, we don’t always know how we are going to feel, so when we have the energy, we gotta use it the best we can to maximize what we can accomplish.
It has taught me compassion. I think, or I would like to think, that I have always had it, but it heightened the level in which I have felt it. Mom always said I wore my heart on my sleeve, because I felt for others so much sometimes. Now I think I go beyond compassion, because I have felt pain others don’t understand. That does things to you that you wouldn’t understand unless you yourself have felt the daily pain and frustrations that come from having a chronic illness.
It has taught me respect for others who battle this illness, and so many others that are as bad or worse and over come obstacles and odds that life always tends to put in our way. Really respect in general as I realize that we all have our crosses to bear in life. Respecting others leads to respecting yourself.
It has taught me my limits. We all have them, we all push them, but it has taught me to be truthful with myself about my own. Also to be realistic with myself and my expectations of myself and others.
I guess the final thing I have learned (I say that cuz when I am done with this, I will remember a whole bunch more things lol) is I have learned who my true friends are. My true friends are the ones who I still call my friends. They are here for me good days and bad, they don’t believe the stories they are sometimes told and they stand up for me, best of all they don’t tell stories behind my back. My friends are the ones by my side regardless, and they know who they are, and they know I am there for them always as well.
Its not always fun lessons to learn, but every lesson is important, every day a blessing. So everyday that I sit here and wonder why, I remember how much I have learned, and think that despite the bad, I am a better person for having experienced what I have in my life, Fibro included. We are all here for a reason, I don’t know what mine is yet, but every time I get stressed I sit down and I think, and after the frustration has passed, I realize that I take the bad with the good and I cope and I live and I will keep going, keep pushing, because lets face it, it beats the alternative. When I take the good and forget about the bad, the stress goes down, I chill out, and I remember my kids my friends and my goals and dreams, and I remember what I am doing, and I pick myself up, dust myself off, quit pouting and get myself back on track. That’s all we can do right? Thanks for listening to me ramble while I work myself through it….. All better now