Off Days

🎧 👉 Prefer audio? You can also listen to me share about this in podcast episode #056 here.

I recently had a full day that was slated to batch-prepare multiple podcast episodes. Preparing a full episode is a process that involves first organizing my key thoughts in a Google doc (because I want to respect your time and get to a key lesson or point, and not just go on and on). Then I research and choose the closing quote for each episode (which also includes checking out the author of the quote if they aren’t commonly known to me to make sure I’m good with who they are and what they stand for). And then, I record and finalize each episode.

While I love doing all of this, I really prefer not having a recurring weekly deadline, and I’ve found that it feels better to me to have a few episodes done in advance. Having a weekly deadline kind of feels like I’m back in school with a project due every week. Feeling relaxed in my day-to-day life and in my work is something I really strive for, especially since I spent so much of my life a bit wound up and frenetically busy.

So my workaround for avoiding the weekly deadline pressure is that I aim to batch at least a few episodes at a time.

Here's a question for you:

Is there a way you can change the way you do something so that you can take some pressure off yourself?

Give that some thought, and I’d bet you can come up with a creative solution.

So back to my story...I had this great plan to batch these episodes. I have a zillion ideas for podcast topics. Practically every day, I get another idea for an episode, and I jot down the idea. So lack of ideas is never the issue. What was the issue then was that I felt "off" and I simply did not get into the right mindset to do it. I stared at my computer for a while and eventually accepted what was happening. I started to go down a path of beating myself up and being all judgmental about my lack of accomplishing that goal for the day and worrying about the ramifications, yet I caught myself. Then I was able to give myself a break and renegotiate (with myself), and I decided I would try again the next day.

What a difference a day makes! Oh my gosh! I created multiple podcast episodes, and they all came with so much ease. I’m so glad I didn’t force myself to try to power through and create them the prior day, for a few reasons: 1) It wouldn’t have been as much fun for me, and 2) I wouldn’t have gotten my messages across as clearly to you.

So here’s another lesson and reminder for you:

"Off" days are normal, and the sooner you accept them, the sooner you can shift them.

You don’t even have to feel off for a full day, but sometimes you may, and that’s ok.

A balanced life isn’t some perfect life where you figure out how to feel perfectly happy all day long.

Nope, it doesn’t work that way.

A balanced life sometimes involves off days, and it also involves learning and using new skills to adjust yourself, your moods, and your circumstances so that those off days don’t turn into off weeks, off months, or off years.

What if you could learn new skills so that you could actually live life on your own terms and timeline?

So that you, too, could more calmly accept your off days and yet also be able to realign yourself quickly?

So that you, too, could renegotiate with yourself and not beat yourself up?

I want to help you more than what I can provide to you through this blog. I've got a free video training called “How to Live Life on Your Own Terms and Timeline (And Stop Sacrificing Your Sanity, Personal Space, or Social Life.” It’s a really juicy 30-minute video with some valuable tips that you can apply to your life right away. Just go here to watch it. 

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” 

– Anne Lamott, author

🎧 👉 Prefer audio? You can also listen to me share about this in podcast episode #056 here.