I've had hundreds of clients over the years who have all but neglected their families as well as their own dreams because of their propensity to believe that life is an emergency. They justify their behavior by believing that if they don't work eight-y hours a week, they won't get everything done. Sometimes I remind them that when they die, their inbox (from work emails) won't be empty!
A client who is a homemaker and mother recently said to me, "I just cant get the house cleaned up the way I like it before everyone leaves in the morning." She was upset over her inability to be perfect that her doctor had prescribed her anti-anxiety medicine. She was acting (and feeling) like there was a gun pointed at her head and the sniper was demanding that every dish be put away and every towel folded - or else! Again, the silent assumption was, this is an emergency! The truth was, no one other than she had created the pressure she was experiencing.
I've never met anyone (myself included) who hasn't turned little things into great big emergencies. We take our own goals seriously that we forget to have fun along the way, and we forget to cut ourselves some slack. We take simple preference and turn them into conditions for our own happiness. Or, we beat ourselves up if we can't meet our self-created deadlines. The first step in becoming a more peaceful person is to have the humility to admit that, in most cases, you're creating your own emergencies. Life will usually go on if things don't go according to plan. It's helpful to keep reminding yourself and repeating the sentence : LIFE IS NOT AN EMERGENCY ☺.
Lifted from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. Page 61-62. By Richard Carlson.
How about you?! Is it true to {your} life or not? :) -CMK
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