Hey, world. What’s up? It’s been a while. A lot’s happened in the past six months… too much, in fact. I’ve known since high school my propensity for joining. I have lots of interests, and I like to do lots of things. Whenever I’m not doing things, I feel like I’m missing out on things (FOMO. It’s real.). But it’s not just typical ‘missing out’ on social activities that plagues me, it’s the idea that there is so much out there in the world to do and see and learn, and the more intimate quality time I spend with my Netflix queue, the less I’m fulfilling my desire to learn and see and do it all.
But, there’s a problem with that:
The more learning and seeing and doing I pack into my schedule, the less learning and seeing and doing I’m actually… doing.
It’s a hard truth for a compulsive joiner like me. You want to do it all, but if you don’t give yourself time to absorb what you’re doing, what are you doing, really?
I recently took an 8-week creative writing class at the awesome Story Studio in Chicago in attempts to jumpstart my non-work writing again, and I loved it. It was great. I met some awesome people, read some awesome work, and frankly wrote some short pieces I’m quite proud of. (Seriously, go take Creative Writing Elements with Sarah; she’s super cool, and also a fellow spin instructor!) But it was only a matter of weeks before the homework got pushed to the night before, or day of, and some reading went by the wayside. Here I was taking a class to reestablish a writing practice, and I “didn’t have time” to prepare for class each week. Between writing, spinning, running, working and traveling, I’d lost my ability to process anything I was actually doing. And frankly, it was exhausting.
I’m not free yet. In fact, I just took on a new weekly spin class. I get excited by all the things I involve myself with! But it’s a goal I’m working on, to stop being so damn busy and to start actually dedicating time to each thing I do, and to myself.
But then again, check back in a couple months and ask me what I’m up to and see if my answer doesn’t include “Oh and I’ve started taking this class…” (or something else along those lines).
Falafel & Earrings 
This is so true. I love doing so many things (attending events, going to fitness classes, learning a new language, etc) that I sometimes forget to just live. Once, a resident advisor in my college dorm asked me: “You are so busy, are you happy?” While I was happy and enjoying everything I was doing, I didn’t realize that sometimes, it is just better to rest and take everything all in. One step at a time 🙂
@aggieruns Absolutely! It’s similar to fitness, don’t you think? As runners we’re all about the go-go-go but sometimes it’s harder to take the time to stop and recover like we’re supposed to, and really physically absorb the work we’re doing. Or how final savasana is the hardest part of a power yoga class!
Exactly, I agree. In the very beginning of my marathon training program, I followed my plan exactly because I’ve never ran a marathon before. Now that the Chicago marathon is near by, I’m focused on listening to my body and not stressing out if I don’t run one day. Since I am still recovering from an injury, I want to make sure that I’m healthy on marathon day! Yes, I’ve taken many yoga classes before where the teacher always says that savasana is the hardest part of class – that’s because we all just need to sit still for a good hour and clear the mind whether that’s through exercise, reading a book, or shutting off our ismartphone.