Time does not equal energy. It's a principle that has taken me my whole adult life thus far to learn.
I have spent years looking at my calendar and thinking that because I had the time for an event/activity I also had the energy. Ah, wrong. I have spent years overfilling my days and weeks and then getting overtired, worn out and unpleasant to be and be around. I expect myself to have endless energy. I'm also a people pleaser. Combine those two characteristics, and you have a deadly combination.
This past week, one of my supervisors came to me and asked if I wanted to come in on Saturday and do overtime. I told her I had to talk to my hubby and get back to her the next day. After work, I talked to hubby, and he lovingly reminded me that I was already tired (it was only Tuesday) and worn out, and did I want to add more to that. I said no and thanked him for his wisdom and encouragement. I then spent the rest of the week grateful for his wisdom.
On Friday, a coworker was sharing what her evening would look like. She had an evening of cleaning with her mom at her sibling's school and was now dreading her decision to work on Saturday morning. She was to work all day Friday, Friday evening and Saturday morning and then run errands Saturday afternoon. Her situation was sounding all too familiar to my week. But in reverse. Mondays are my long days in which I work two jobs, and now she was about to work two jobs on Friday. I encouraged her to cancel overtime on Saturday and enjoy her weekend like hubby had encouraged me to do. She took my suggestion and decided to cancel the optional overtime.
It finally occurred to me that time does not equal energy. We both had the time and availability to work Saturday morning, but neither of us had the energy to do so. It was at this moment that I finally learned this lesson. I'm finally learning that time does not equal energy. I need to check my calendar and energy levels and ask myself if I have the energy needed to participate in whatever activity is being asked of me. I don't allow myself to admit that it takes time and energy to recover from a regular full forty-hour work week. And even more time to recover if you work more than forty hours a week.
I'm so glad that I have finally learned this lesson. I think I unknowly practiced it this week, which is pretty cool. Hopefully, I will continue to practice it intentionally and unintentionally. We are doing extra hours at work, so instead of working eight hours a day I now work 9 hours Monday - Thursday and eight hours on Friday. I usually do groceries on Thursdays but realized two weeks ago that I don't have the energy to do groceries after nine hours, so I switched to Fridays. So far so good. This past week I decided to try buying my groceries online and just picking it up at my designated time. Oh my goodness, best decision ever. Instead of getting off work, walking Blessing, doing groceries, and just barely squeezing in supper before going to bed. I decided that on Thursday, instead of doing groceries after our walk. I would make supper and then sit at my computer in the comfort of my home and order our groceries. I went to bed that night nowhere near as drained as I would have otherwise. Then, Friday evening, I headed to Walmart and picked up my groceries without any fuss or energy lost. Best decision ever.
How about you, friend? Do you struggle with overcommitting yourself and not having enough energy to complete the task? God didn't create us to overwork and never rest. He created us to work hard and rest well.
I pray this post blesses and encourages you today, friend.
God Bless
~Hannah
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