When every day becomes a struggle to feel motivated, joyful, and grateful, then we know there is a problem. We have a right to be happy, but we have this innate ability to focus on all of our struggles. We come home day after day and complain about our jobs, bosses, and coworkers. Spend time with some moms, and you will hear about every annoying thing their child does and the distance in their marriages. If you have done these through postings on Facebook or conversations with your best friends, it is time to look at how you are living and rebuild. You deserve to experience joy and experience struggles with a sense of gratitude once you get through them.
Take Stock Of Your Time
If you aren’t living by a daily planner, spend a week tallying up how much time you spend on your schedule. Part of time freedom indicates that you are spending time doing things you absolutely love doing. Obviously, there are some things you must do (clean house, work, pay bills) that we need to keep on the planner. When you keep a diary of everything you do, you are going to find a lot of other things that will make you reconsider how you are spending time.
Upgrade What You Must Do
Now that you see the things you must do each week, are there things you can change? If the job is taking up a lot of your extra time and you have been resentful, maybe it’s time for a change! Changing your job can do wonders for your mood and doing what fulfills you will lead to less misery. You may even have to take a pay cut, but it will still be an upgrade because you can’t put a price on joy. House cleaning taking hours on end? Maybe you need to hire a cleaning service to help with the bigger stuff, and you do the daily maintenance. Or start a chart that everyone in the house must follow and take some of the stress off you. If you are in a bigger home and the kids have left the nest, it’s time to consider a smaller home that has easier upkeep.
Find Extra Time By Changing Your Involvement
How many of us would love to spend a couple of hours in quiet while reading a novel that’s been on the shelf for months? Or maybe you have wanted to get back into a craft you haven’t touched in what feels like forever? What if I told you that you could by looking at the weekly diary and making changes?
Spending time volunteering, visiting with family, getting the kids to soccer practices and games are all wonderful things. You don’t have to do them all! Set a realistic amount of time each week, such as 5 hours, that is for you to do what you want. Cut down on some volunteer time. Work with another soccer parent to swap times for delivering and picking up kids to their practices. Tell Grandma, mom, or your uncle that you need to cut your Sunday day-long visits to breakfast or lunch dates. Make up the time through phone calls.
Some small minor changes can do a lot for loving the life you are living. Start with one and see how it goes. Make another change in a few months. Keep going until you found the balance that leaves you smiling and complaining a lot less. Your family will thank you.
Read More:
The Psychology Of The Haves and Have Nots
EMT, Firefighter – What Will He Do Next?
not a fan of this blogger. no debt info, no personal stories, just generic posts.
Because it’s a content farmer. Whoever owns the blog now is turning it into a content farm.
I wish Ashley would just post about whatever she wants, its more interesting than this. I know she can’t because of legal reasons. Hope doesn’t really want any advice anyway.
And a lot of times she doesn’t answer questions.
IKR- where is Hope lol
Trying to figure out how to put a positive spin on the fact that she had another car wreck, and looks like she totaled the car.
you’re not serious, are you?
Where did you see that??
Her IG.
Shit happens
I’d say that too, if that wasn’t the third car wreck (with 2 totaled, or nearly totaled cars) in two years, and the second in under a month. Even if it was a kid driving, three car wrecks in two years for a family is excessive. They need to drive more carefully.
I wonder if she texts and drives
Sometimes people just hit a bad patch of luck. I totaled two cars in 5 months about 10 years ago and have been accident-free ever since.
For the love. At this rate, if she even gets to keep her car insurance, how could she afford it.
I am hoping that Hope and her family is well. Her kid had a health problem so, I hope her being MIA is not due to something like that. I truly wish everything is fine with her.
If that is not the case, she is probably not posting because her budget was criticized and she probably wants all readers to forget about that before she posts something new.
Oy, that’s why I’m scared to post my budget on my own blog. Sometimes people give advice, but no stone throwing.
Generally speaking when you ask for people’s thoughts on something you should be prepared to encounter some criticism. I hope Hope is okay and her accident did not completely derail her. When life kicks you it is easy to toss your hands up in the air and declare yourself not responsible for the fact that you lose financial control. It worries me she did not have much left after the last two car incidents between the tires and last car accident. Wonder if this happened before or after her trip to parents? I know she was looking forward to that and her visit with her son. Hopefully this accident did not completely decimate all her spring break plans.
Hey, on a positive note… we paid off a vehicle loan yesterday! Woo Hoo! Rolling that payment into the loan for last year’s emergency sidewalk/yard repairs, we can pay that one off in July! That’s two full years early, ladies and gentlemen! Then we will only have the mortgage. Oh, and the truck loan for my son, who wants the satisfaction of paying it off himself, and is making more than minimum payments. (In Nebraska, you can’t enter a financial contract until you’re 19. :/ )
Congrats!
Thank you! Feels good.