Can We Pause?

Hi Readers,

Today's blog post is going to be talking about one major thing I feel is an ongoing struggle with young adults, so I will be sharing my thoughts.

I was saying a while ago, growing up we all itched to grow up and fantasized about adulthood. Little did we know it is not as peachy as it seems. If you are not well-balanced, you will most likely crumble (no really) but don't be alarmed.

One thing I will definitely say is university could never teach us what we are learning and going through right now as adults, it prepared us to some extent but in real time it's all a different ball game. Because I can honestly say adulthood is not what I thought..like literally can we hit a PAUSE?
We are faced with pressure from so many angles as growing adults and slapped in the face with so much you can barely breathe sometimes. I mean speaking from a personal point of view I feel like throwing in the towel sometimes because at some points things do get overwhelming and I feel like I beat myself up a lot for this. 

But like everything in life the key is balance. 

Spiritual balance, physical balance, mental balance, emotional balance, financial balance. Yet this is one of the hardest things to achieve especially when you have so many plates spinning. Trying to keep your life together sometimes feels like multiple opened tabs in Internet Explorer, it's so hard to focus on one.
Between going to work, church activities, managing your love life, keeping up with friends, managing your finances, being an entrepreneur, going to gym or whatever else you like to do, by the time you are through you are left drained in all aspects and barely hanging on to sanity. 

Adult life is not easy but sometimes we make it even more difficult for ourselves. So I've decided to identify my tipping point and how to alleviate it.

Here's three secrets about adulthood:

1. Learn the art of saying NO. 'No is a complete sentence and does not always need an explanation'. Let it become your best friend because if you keep saying yes to everything being requested of you, there will come a time where you'll find yourself in deep waters because you weren't able to put your foot down and sum up the courage to say no due to fear of disappointing people. It even makes you look worse if you agree that you'd do something but then you end up not being able to do it. Sometimes we always feel that incessant need to always please people but you see as you get older you start to learn you CANNOT please everybody and displease yourself in the process. Don't overspend yourself because you will pay the consequences. Be unapologetic about your standards, it actually attracts more respect. This task was difficult at first because I'm someone that likes to do right by people but then I realised the adverse effects of being 'too available' and how it was starting to throw me way off balance. Once I analysed the effect of always overstretching myself and not having enough time for me I realised it was time to switch up and it has improved my life immensely.
2. PRIORITIZE your tasks and never burn too many candles at the same time. Following on from my previous point, let your no be a no. Learn to prioritize your tasks in order of what is more important, you will actually get more things done that way and stay afloat of all your affairs. One technique I will definitely recommend to work through your tasks/goals is the SMART goals acronym. This has really helped me and I find it to be quite resourceful.             S-pecific, M-easurable, A-ttainable, R-ealistic, T-imely. 
3. Please REST!!!. I cannot emphasize how important this is. Often we hear things like 'Money doesn't sleep, so why should I", take this with a pinch of a salt. Take care of your body and your health (mental and physical). Do not get me wrong you will have some sleepless nights on some occasions in order to hit a target but it should never be a regular thing. Not having enough rest even affects our productivity sometimes so please rest accordingly. You know your body better than anyone else. If you need to take a break from the world briefly and you have a chance to..DO IT. A healthy mind is a healthy body. And "health is truly wealth". That being said it's not an opportunity to remain in a state of constant latency. Anything that isn't being used will eventually rust. 

With that being said, welcome to Adulthood and I hope you found this quite helpful. There's no manual or guide to life, you just have to find what works best for you and only you. 

Don't give up, don't beat yourself up and don't lose focus because greatness cannot be built overnight.

Stay Blessed,

Signed, B xoxo