Prioritize yourself without feeling guilty

Guilt is a choice and so is fear. Let's remember that. Nobody else can make us feel that way. We get to pick it. So one is just deciding.

I'm not gonna feel guilty about it. The other is I pick a pretty few number of things that I do super consistently, and then the rest of it I don't worry about. So my prioritizing myself. I don't know. I'll go through them and see how many there are. I dunno off the top of my head. One is working out. I always do it at, but crack 30 in the morning.

It's the only time that it can happen super consistently. Most mornings I'm up by five 15 and I'm done working out by 6 37. I may not work out the whole time, goodness gracious, but I get a good workout in, get a quick shower. I'm like ready for the day. By seven 30 it has to happen. Or there's a thousand little people at my feet.

You know, having a bunch of questions. So that is one thing, getting up at butt crack 30, you have to, for me, I have to make it non-negotiable. I can't be like, well, I sorta of want to, don't want to, I never wanna get out of bed at five 15. Let's be clear. But I have never been mad that I did, and I just know that, and it's becoming habit and I just do it and choose it and get over it.

The other thing that I do is I take care of my skin. My mom taught me this young and I. Don't necessarily need to look forever young, but I'm gonna. Do what I can with what I have. And so I do prioritize taking care of my skin. I get facials at a med spa. I do things to make it so that my skin does not age faster than it needs to, and that is something that I've prioritized.

Those two things are kind of it, and I go to bed. Earlier than people think between 9 45 and 10 45, I need sleep. I'm not somebody who can run fast and hard on five hours and so that is something that I do, which means I don't really watch tv. It's something I realized I had to like kinda give back to my life.

I don't, I can't start shows cuz I don't have the self-control not to watch them until one in the morning. And I just know I operate like crap when I don't have sleep. So. I sleep, I work out in the morning and I take care of my skin. Things I don't do, I don't get my nails done. This is not a high enough priority for me.

So again, it's a choice. If somebody wants to do that, oh my word, do it and love  it, no problem. But figure out what your minimums are that you need to really kind of make yourself feel strong and whole. And as my grandma says, like dress to forget yourself. You need to feel good about yourself. That is an important part of giving yourself to other people is feeling good and whole and like I'm on my game, but guilt is a choice.

And. The little bit of time, little bit of money, whatever it takes, just do it and make it part of your routine. One of my hacks is that whenever I leave my appointment, I schedule the next one and that way it's just on there. I used to move it around 10,000 times cuz I'd be like, oh, I've got a facial scheduled.

I can move it, I can move it. It's no problem. I can move it. And now I'm like, it's booked. It's on my schedule and we're gonna do best we can to work around that. And so that's a way that I just prioritize it. I just say it's a priority. It's already on my calendar. It was on there first. It may not be more important than the other thing that's trying to make take its time, but it is something that I decided was a priority, and so I just keep the commitment.

The fitness person I work with says the same thing as it relates to your workout times, like schedule it on your calendar and just keep the commitment to yourself. If you need a running buddy or somebody like that to keep you accountable, then start that way. It can certainly help but make it a commitment.

Don't start somewhere between five 15 and six, like figure out what time you're gonna be on the road, or what time are you gonna be lifting, or what time you gonna be in your basement and keep the commitment to yourself. I have gotten better at that with age. It's not something that comes naturally to me to be really disciplined that way.

But if I keep my commitments to everybody else on my calendar, why would I not work to keep my commitments to myself? And it's very hard. I have to practice it a lot. But it is really a game changer in the capacity that gives me back to say, I don't have to resol for those things every day when I actually kept the commitment on my calendar of when I was gonna get up and work out.

So figure out your minimums. Stay consistent with them. Start with one thing and build on it and figure out where do you want to get to? What makes you feel like you are also spending time loving yourself?

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