Feeling smug.

Monday morning I return from holiday feeling rested, restored and focussed. New Monday morning routine ensues with Yoga at 6:45. By 8:45 I have eaten breakfast with my children, lovingly packed them off to school and cracked on with some client follow up.

Sorted.

24 hours later it’s a whole different story.

It starts off well, and the rapidly declines. By 8:30 I have had complaints that the pancake mixture is off, first child doesn’t feel well, second child needs payment for a school trip to go with the letter that has gone into the Bermuda triangle of school communications. The dog is tormenting a bird that can’t fly in the garden, third child announces (with very short notice) that she has to be in school early to count the praise points. What happened to good old fashioned house points?

Diary faux pas leaves me with a double booking with a client and new project meeting, another client emails to request a reschedule somewhere else and another cancels due to an organisational priority.

Text messages and WhatsApp is on fire with requests, favours and FYI’s.

Send ‘not well’ child to school. Bundle (read – shout at, rant, and hurry) the other two into the car and feel grateful that once ‘praise point child’ has gone into school early I can use the new ‘kiss and drop’ service for  ‘school trip’ child. Will then have time to get home,  walk the dog, rescue ‘sweaty look’ from walking at high speed and compose myself to show up for my corporate client at 10 am.

Nope.

Plot twist! Kiss and Drop not in service this week.

Really? That extra 15 minutes hanging around in the car park is not helping me to rescue my timetable today.

At this point, I could have gone into mum meltdown. I did allow my inner critic to grab my attention and then I told her to shut up and sit down. The events of the morning do not define me as a mum or a business owner. They just make me human.

No one is immune to the chaos that life can throw at us without warning.  However, I am glad she did grab my attention because it reminded me of far I have come in managing that voice and not allowing it to take over. Of how much more equipped I feel to make better choices. It may seem like a tiny thing, but in that moment I chose just to be. To be present and give ‘school trip’ child my full attention and reset my day.

While the intricacies of making pom poms (it’s Arts week apparently!) was not high on my priority list, I absolutely know that having my full attention for just a couple of minutes contributed to her starting her day in a really positive way. And it helped me reset mine too. Her joy in telling me exactly how she made them and why she enjoyed it was a huge reminder just to stop and be. Give yourself permission to pause now and then even amidst the chaos. 

Life isn’t perfect, but it does have perfect moments. Despite the chaos that descended on me this morning I still managed to find the perfect moments within it. Just like there is no night without day, the chaos comes. And then it goes. Then it comes back again. Life is hard, and then it’s easy. Then it’s hard again. Just go with the flow and ride the wave.

Here are four things that you can do when the chaos descends on your day, tips you into overwhelm and you start to lose perspective.

1. Remember that everything is temporary. ‘This too shall pass’ is a phrase that is imprinted on my brain somewhere for easy retrieval.
2. Tell the critical committee to shut up and sit down. Giving yourself a hard time for repeating the same patterns, ruminating over what you should have, could have, would have done doesn’t help AT ALL!
3. Know that you have the choice in ANY moment to start all over again. The chaos or disaster that has struck doesn’t not define you or your day.
4. Focus on what’s REALLY important in that moment. Everything else can wait.

Embrace the perfection amongst the imperfection – it IS there if you choose to look

Jo x

PS If you still feel overwhelmed and this is the standard template for your life right now then I’d be delighted to help https://jocowlin.com/contact/