Have you ever been in the bathroom drying your hair or in the kitchen running the microwave and all of a sudden the power goes out? If the outlet you have the appliance plugged into has a GFI, you may have tripped the outlet, causing it to lose power. Naturally, you try unplugging one of the appliances and then reach in and click the reset button and the power goes back on.
This is often due to the outlet being overloaded. While GFI outlets serve many purposes, I decided to use the GFI outlet to demonstrate or help you visualize our lives. We are internally wired to handle a great deal of multitasking, assignments and stress, but when we undertake too many projects, too many commitments, we often find our lives overloaded. Just like the outlet, if you overload your life, most of the time you will end up sick. This is our body telling us we are overloaded, just like the outlet.
I am sure you are thinking to yourself, "I have no choice, family, career, life." This may be true and the changes in technology that have taken place in the past couple of years has made our lives even faster. Today we have added responsibilities with social media, computers, smart phones and tablets. This is the future, so we need to take time to remember the fundamentals of life, like take time to stop and smell the roses or revisiting our priorities.
If you find yourself with high blood pressure, headaches and sick too often, maybe it is time to disconnect some of your internal appliances. Just like the GFI outlet, if you don't unplug or turn something off, you are going to overload your life again.
Earlier this year, I lost my father to heart disease at the age of 83. He and I spent a great deal of time discussing life and aging. In all of our father-son talks, he never once said he wishes he had worked more. In my Life Coaching experiences, I never had an elderly client say they wish they had spent more time in the office. I always heard things like, "I wish I had taken more time with my children" or "I wish I had taken more trips" or "I wish I had lived life more fully."
As I embark on the 2011-2012 Life Coach Road Trip, I want to remind the people I meet to take time in life to enjoy the journey, don't focus on the destination. It is like a vacation, getting there is half the fun.
