One of the things I truly forget about is... myself. Taking care of myself, taking time for myself, and just taking time with family.
I get so involved in the number of hours, case types, and thinking ahead to length of assignment/finances/bills/investments that I lose sight of self. I forget the 70 hours of work and 40 hours of sleep is 110 hours in 5 days 5x24 120 doesn't leave a lot of time when you drive an hour a day. Most weekends I am off which helps but notice I say most because I offer myself up to any days.
So, as I mentioned I'm planning our family vacation to Hawaii to see my brother and sister-in-law. This takes financial and self awareness. You'll recall I'm 1099 which means paid vacation does not exist. I have to make sure all standard bills will be paid while gone and that $$$ exist for hotel/AirBNB, tours, and the like.
This week long vacay may only be a week but I've decided to do something that 50% of people say horrible things to me about and the other half... support. I'm going to get my gastric sleeve. Not because I can't just go on a diet and lose some weight. It's because I can't get myself to completely change my habits. Why? When I diet I can rationalize that this workout or diet for three days means I can go with friends to X restaurant have drinks and dinner and enjoy... then the next day I just skip the workout because I'm tired and have a beer with dinner because man I worked so hard. The wagon is broken. I'm changing the ability to rationalize by saying my body has been altered and despite all things and what people say .. I'm limited in ability to fall. Yes in 3 years if I want to screw things up... I can. Have you changed everything for three years and decided to return to a life you didn't like? My hope and goal is to do this drastic thing to myself to force a change in habit. Right or wrong I'm doing this so I am around for this family. I feel like if I don't I'll be that 40 year old in the ER with a heart attack. I'm hoping at 37 this will allow me to physically change and reverse the negative effects on my health before they are permanent. No it's not because I don't want to exercise. In fact, I walked 6 miles today with elizabeth. It's not because I hate healthy food. I love it... too much. It's portion re-training: yup, I'll have to break the Diet Coke addiction too.
That's two things I'm doing for me... but that's in November. You can't just take a week every 3-6 months and feel fulfilled. I think at least every couple weekends you need a little just for you or just for family time so you see the fruit of the labor.
What do you do?