Source: flickr.com
Hi, my name is Alice. I'm a Workaholic. Okay, okay, so it's a Web PsychD diagnosis. But when I answer those "Are You A Workaholic?" questionnaires, if there are 7 items, 6 of them describe me. If there are 20 items, 19 describe me. I'm going with it.
I've had the tendency to overfill my schedule since...well, I can remember working on personal time schedules in my early 20's when I was in college the first or second time. It didn't stop. Even when I retired, I indulged in saying yes to everything I ever wanted to do. And turned what might have been fun...into work.
The three characteristics of Workaholics that cause me the most problems are 1) I add activities but I don't take any away. After while my schedule is so full I can't possibly get everything done and I freeze up and do none of it. And feel guilty. A management tool for Workaholics is that if you add an activity, you MUST subtract one. 2) I can take ANY activity and suck it so dry of pleasure you'd think you were in the Sahara Desert. I mess it up with schedules, goals, challenges & expectations. Those are accompanied, naturally by disappointments, try-harders & making up what I couldn't possibly get done in the first place...yeah, the fun factor isn't even on the chart. 3) In fact, doing something "just for" is a little out of my scope of thinking at all.
A couple months ago, I pushed myself past my limit and the walls of my Workaholic house came tumbling down. All of the above was true. In addition, because of Covid restrictions, I'd been able to do favorite activities with such consistency that I wore them right out. So I decided a regrouping was necessary and I stopped everything but running and reading for awhile. Longer than I thought I might need to, in fact. I analyzed and evaluated and made lists. I figured out which activities weren't serving me at all. I figured out how to cut back on how much I did favorite activities so that I could still do them without overdoing them. I made a promise that my day was done after supper and dishes instead of adding a half-hour of music practice and a Yoga Teacher Training study session.
Whew! That helped a lot.
Then I started thinking about doing some things just for.....f-f-f-fun. My first thought was to take some of things I'd been doing that had turned into work and call them fun. HAHAHAHAHA! That's some ridunculous thinking right there! Besides, as noted, everything was worn out. My favorite activities needed to be treated very tenderly, NOT forced into service as a substitute for real change. So I started a list of things that could possibly be done just for f-f-f-fun. Yes, I googled "how to have fun". I ended up with a satisfactory list of things to try. The only parameter I have for now is that f-f-f-fun activities be limited-run so they don't turn into a "commitment" (read: work).
Here's my f-f-f-fun so far:
1. I watched the remainder of the spring season of The Voice. You'll recall Dancing With the Stars was a favorite, but it's morphed into something I can no longer love. Did The Voice fill the void? Exceedingly well.
Source: nbc.com
2. I've been an inactive fan of pro basketball for decades. Ron is a consistent fan. With NBA playoffs approaching, I decided to activate my fanship and have gone all in. First we watched a new pre-playoff tournament called the Play Ins. When that was done and the Play Offs started, I chose two teams to follow: the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks. Each round of the playoffs is the best of seven games. Let me say that it's already the most television I've watched in my whole life, and we're still in the first round! But is it fun? Yes! It's fun to plan other activities around games. It's fun to watch TV in the afternoon. It's fun to watch two games in a single day. Both of "my" teams are 3-2 right now. If one or both of them don't make it past this round, I'll pick other teams(s) to watch through to the Finals.
Sources: NBA, Wikipedia
3. During the winter, Ron was inexplicably unable to find dried basil at the grocery store a couple of times (!). We have one very vigorous perennial lemon basil plant in the yard, so I'm trying my hand at drying basil. Today I did the first harvest and started the drying process. This batch will take ~4 weeks to dry, so I'll see what happens.
Besides these f-f-f-fun activities, I've eased back in to modified versions of most of my usual favorite activities and find that I'm consistently enjoying them as well as having reasonable days overall.
What's my lesson here?
Source: VectorStock
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