I Need to Take My Own Advice!

Do you ever just have one of those weeks where everything in your life is bursting at the seams? I began this week insisting that, other than a few urgent tasks, I was going to take the week off of work so that I could catch up on some of my “mommy” duties, tackle a remodeling project at home, and work on some special surprises for my favorite little tax deduction’s birthday tomorrow. Don’t you know that is the perfect breeding ground for all sorts of craziness?!? On top of coming down with a nasty cold and processing some last minute changes for existing clients, I’ve received a record number of travel inquiries this week! Of course it’s all good (other than the cold, that is), but being over-scheduled has reminded me how important it is to take some of my own best advice.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

This time of year, when tax returns are due and we celebrate our daughter’s birthday, I find myself especially grateful for (1) bakers and (2) my amazing CPA. If there are two things I don’t need to be doing, it’s (1) baking a birthday cake and (2) my taxes! Thank goodness there are pros out there who are gifted enough to do the jobs I can’t do for myself.

But what about the jobs I can do for myself? I spent six hours yesterday on boxes #1 & #2 out of NINE from IKEA. Somewhere between the cold medicine and the power tools, I thought, “What on earth am I doing?!?”

Was this really the best use of my time?

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I’m not sure if it was mere frugality, a sense of duty, or inflated self-confidence that led me to furniture assembly, but I know that putting together just one cabinet for my daughter’s bedroom was an absurd waste of my time.

Have you ever been there? You know…that place where you realize you gotten yourself into a ridiculous time-suck because you believed yourself to be capable of the job you needed done.

The fact is—just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

It’s easy to diagnose the jobs we can’t do (like baking and taxes), but it’s usually the jobs we think we can handle that get us into trouble. I’ve had clients tell me there’s no way they could’ve planned their complex, uber-personalized vacation on their own (#humblebrag), and I’ve also had those who have said, “thanks for making our lives easier by planning our vacation.”  The point is, whether I did a job they couldn’t do or a job they shouldn’t do, they were wise to seek out the services and assistance of someone who knows her way around an itinerary. Unlike me during Remodel 2016, my clients know their limits. They know when to say when. And they definitely know that they have families and lives and work that are a better use of their day than getting stuck in the TripAdvisor time-suck!

So let’s make a deal, okay? How about you leave the travel planning to me, and I serve you better by leaving the furniture assembly to someone else?

 

Ciao Chow!

Autumn