An altruist in its truest sense; those who know me, know that I would stop at nothing to lend a listening ear or helping hand when needed.
My personality attracts many who are depressed, suicidal, insecure about life or going through marital or relationship problems or even seeking spiritual advice.
I am often amazed at how many times I would meet a complete stranger and after 5 minutes of us talking, they would spill everything about their past to me- from their insecurities to extramarital affairs.
Lately however, I am finding it difficult to balance answering e-mails, instant messages, my always-ringing phone and my ‘me time’.
The time I have for myself is becoming less and less and while I find great joy in helping others, I am finding it difficult to balance this with taking care of an incipient need for emotional rest. I am starting to become ‘peopled out’ more quickly and less patient with those I love and care for.
Does this happen to you also? Do you feel ‘peopled out’ at times? Does your train sometimes feel like it has too many people on it?
Human thinking is to start offloading at the very next train stop. A look at the bigger picture however, shows that all I need to do is balance my people time and my ‘me’ time. It is really as simple as hitting the power button on my phone and turning off my PC for a few hours every day.
Effective living requires balance, balance of my ‘me’ (personal) time and my people time.
Some common cliches that actually speak of balance…
- Step out of traffic
- Stop and smell the roses
- Voicemail Stupid!
- Let Go, let God…
From my heart, to yours,
Akhenaton
I am a people person; I love people! I enjoy the company of family and friends. I love meeting new people!
The solution to this is quite simple. If this was a New York City subway train and not a WMATA train you could be an express train but of course this isn’t possible with WMATA now is it?
Simply load on the important passengers (including me) and then make sure the train does not stop until its destination.
It could only be clearer if DC had an express train system similar to NY but alas, this is not the case.
lol…Pittsburgh is definitely going to be one of the stops designated (exclusively) for offloading (smile). I love the analogy of the ‘Express Train’, however it is hard for me to drop people or pass by (with good conscience) someone who is in need. It really comes back to better balance. That really is the only amicable solution.
Definitely take time for yourself man.You deserve it! For what it’s worth, I want to thank you for all the compassion you’ve shown me, and the time you’ve taken out to talk to me when I needed it. I promise to be there whenever you need to talk–it’s only fair!