Knowing My Limitations and Finding Balance

Sometimes I can get so wrapped up in life that I don’t realize I’m burning out. I’ll just suddenly feel like the wind was knocked out of me and my brain screams, “You need a vacation!”

Life can get really busy at times – job, family obligations, financial stress, health needs – it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. I can’t quite remember when I started to recognize my limitations, but I certainly can remember a time when I didn’t heed them (grin).  At some point I recognized: I can’t do that right now. Some time after that I learned how to say: I can’t do that right now.

Many of us know that impulse to be wonderkid – to be everything to everybody – never wanting to say, sorry, I can’t make it. It’s a fine balancing act. On the one hand, I need to make time for the fundamentals  that keep me sober. On the other hand, I sometimes feel like I neglect friends and family because I’m so busy with the “other stuff.”

How do I even know what my true limitations are? When am I just being lazy? Or avoidant?

It’s something I’m always trying to measure, because I know I have a strong impulse to isolate, so I don’t ever want to use this idea of setting boundaries or knowing my limitations as an excuse to hide in my cave. However, sometimes a person needs the cave. Sometimes I need to sit with just myself and absorb the day, the week, my life.

How do you manage this balancing act?