You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hello, welcome back to I Choose Me. As you know, this podcast is all about choices, but today it's a just Jenny episode, and I'm going to be talking about something that I know is going to hit home for almost every person listening, maybe just in different ways. It's that thing we are all chasing time. Okay, So here's a question. What is up with this constant feeling of just being slammed all the time, like go go go every day.
I mean, truly, it's constantly just grinding, just carrying so much on your shoulders. I don't know about you, but I can feel it sometimes, like I can feel the weight of all the commitments and all of the things that I need to do and be. It's heavy. It's a lot, and I know if I'm feeling it, you're feeling it too, in whatever your scenario is. And it doesn't even matter what the weight actually is, because my weight is different than your weight. Maybe your weight is.
You're feeling anxious about the possibility of losing your job. I mean, hello, we all need our jobs, but there's an underlying fear that I have of not being able to take care of myself or my family. And that's that's a deep fear. It's always there. Life is Krayz right now. Who knows. Maybe you're a new parent and you're juggling an entire new life, a new list of responsibilities. You got bottles, you got the diapers, you're sleep deprived. It's a lot. There's no handbook for Actually, there is
a handbook for it. I read it. You probably read it. What to expect and respecting. But you know what I'm saying is, even in different situations, if you're a parent, there's the forever epic responsibility of being a good mom or dad through every stage and every age. Or maybe you're a parent to an adult kid who still needs a lot of let's just call it guidance, and we're
trying to figure out how to do this. You know, we're trying to stay connected with our adult kids as they're leaving the nest, but also knowing, you know, we got to let them fly. So yeah, figuring out that whole new rhythm, that whole vibe take some work. Perhaps you're all the sudden face having to be a completely different kind of parent, like me to an eighty three year old infant child who used to be my parent.
Kind of thing which requires a great amount of love, yes, but also patience, so much patience, like all the patients sometimes, but you know in your bones that's what you need to be doing. Oh and then there's the relationships. They are work. A commitment to grow alongside with your person, whether you are together or apart, is a lot of work. You have to give that time or it will just fizzle and you will grow apart, and we don't want
that to happen. Or maybe it's just all the hoops, all the hoops that you've been jumping through trying to hustle your schedule so that you can do all the things. And then least we forget the you of it, all the upkeep of you. You guys, it is real. Your physical health, your mental health, your skin and hair health, your eyes, your teeth, your gut, your pelvic floor. It's like it's never ending. This list is never ending of things we need to do to take care of ourselves.
I mean, I'll let you in on a little insight. I am working harder now than I've ever worked in my life. When I look at my calendar, I almost have a panic attack because literally every hour is accounted for in my workday, from getting up, exercising, eating breakfast, it's all on the calendar. Sit down and work on your book, go to the meeting, get on that zoom call design Fall twenty twenty six. Like, there is so
much to do in every single day. Sometimes I think there's no way I'm going to get it all done. And sometimes I think, oh my gosh, I don't want to be so scheduled. My entire life is like on the calendar. It's there's something so helpful about scheduling your time, but then there's also something like, ooh, that's a lot, and this living of a life, it's a big deal. If you're like me, you're saying yes to everything. You want to fix every problem, you want to help every person.
You want to do all the things. But sometimes maybe this will happen to you. I was on the phone with one of my friends the other day. I was wanting to be there for her. Well, of course, listen, I want to help her, and I realized I was trying to solve a problem that wasn't mine to solve it. And you, guys, I have a lot of problems to solve, and I felt like it was adding like ten pounds of emotional weight to my back. We do that without
even thinking. We take on other people's problems. But if we have any self awareness, hopefully we slow down for half a second and we realize, oh, okay, I am actually running on fumes here. My tank was getting way too close to e and we go to that dialogue, Oh okay, it's okay. I just have time today to take care of myself. If I only had a little more time, if I only had another hour in the day, then I would finally find the time to take care of me. That thought, if I only had more time
is the mythical twenty fifth hour. We chase it, but we never find it. The truth is that hour is a total illusion. So the mythical twenty fifth hour, it's the hour we tell ourselves we'll finally rest, I'll finally work out. I'll just finally get to sit in silence and think about what I'm grateful for. But here's the truth. If we magically had a twenty fifth hour in the day, most of us wouldn't use it to rest. We'd fill it right back up. Another errand another quick phone call
for work another thing for the kids. It's like dig in a hole in the sand and you know you're making the space. You're digging in there, you're trying to carve out somewhere safe. But before you know it, a wave, Yes I'm getting metaphorical here, another task floods the space and then before you know another big wave comes along, more obligations, more to dos. The sand just collapses. It flattens out, like your space never existed. It's gone. Sometimes
you just have to reorganize things. You have to reprioritize. Even though you've got it all laid out and you think, here's the plan, this is going to work. Something will come up and you will need to add that in make that happen, find that time. And for me, it is usually about looking at what I have, deciding what can slide to the next day, what can go to next week, what needs my attention right now? And that's how I sort of prioritize my to dos on my calendar.
I'm sorry to say this, but I'm sausage just talking about all this. You guys. The problem, though I want you to know, is not the clock. The problem is that we don't want to spend time or make the effort to take care of ourselves, to keep digging the holes and finding that safe space. The problem is we stop loving ourselves enough to prioritize our well being over all the other noises. We've trained ourselves and crucially, we train the people around us that we are endlessly available.
I've had to learn that the hard way that when I drop everything to rescue someone, I'm actually teaching them that my time is less valuable than their emergency. I mean, you know, unless it's an actual physical emergency. Choosing me isn't selfish, Guys, is an act of necessary self love,
and teaching others how to respect my boundaries is a priority. Okay, So, since I've gone a little long here and maybe even gotten a little too worked up, I want to leave you with a promise this isn't just a venting session. We are going to fix this. I am going to drop my tips to choosing my time on a bonus
episode in a couple of days. We're talking concrete steps how to schedule your workout without guilt, how to say no to a new commitment when you're already overbooked, and how to communicate this change to your family and friends, So make sure you're subscribed. Hit that follow button right now so you know when that's ready, and we will continue this conversation and you will get the four to one one on how I successfully carve out time for
myself and start choosing me first. You deserve this, friends, you really do. So until the bonus episode, let's do this. Let's try claiming fifteen minutes today. Don't fill it with a task, just claim it as your own. Sit with it. That is your first step toward claiming the twenty fifth hour that was already waiting for you. Thank you for choosing me. Bye for now,