Enjoy the things you "Get to do."

So many times in our lives we have the mentality that we “Have to” do certain things in our lives and feel like they may be a burden on your day. On a day like today we can easily feel negative about being stuck at home or working remotely. I feel like we can change our mind set at this time and look on the brighter side of things and realize how many things we “Get to do!”

Here is a list of my favorite things that we “Get to do” during this time.

1. Connect with Family and Friends on a deeper level. This is a rare time in our lives that our busy schedules may slow down just a little to allow you to ask a friend or family member what’s going on in their lives or what book they are reading. Taking that extra moment to ask one more question or listen to a great story they may have that they haven’t been able to tell. If your house is anything like mine sometimes it may feel like you only get the “Cliff’s Notes” from your family, now is a time to enjoy the whole book!

2. Having Family Dinner “Together”. This may date me but I can remember a time when dinner was something that your entire family did together on a nightly basis. It was a time to hear about each other's day, solve problems as a family and get advice from your parents or siblings.

3. Read that book you’ve been putting off. When our lives are as busy as they are with school, work, kids, second jobs, and that inconvenient emergency; we rarely make time to slow down and spend a couple quiet moments to “feed your soul” and read or listen to an audio book. This is a great way to start and finish your day.

4. Guided Meditation. Similar to reading books, spending a few moments of “Guided Meditation” to center yourself, relieve stress, improve your sleep and provide that calm place in all of the chaos around you. I’ve found that using apps like “Insight Timer” or “Guided Meditation on YouTube work great as there's plenty of content available for any occasion.

5. Remove the clutter from your life. This is a great opportunity to clean out your closets, garages, offices etc. Typically these are things we’ve been putting off since the end of the year but now we have an opportunity to remove the clutter from our lives.

6. Work of your Family Budget. This is also a great time to take a step back from your life and look at it from a financial standpoint and determine what are those non-essential things that you can do without spending your hard earned money on. The best way to start is with the recurring “Essential” expenses and work your way down from largest to smallest. You may find that you have small recurring expenses that you didn’t know were there and now would be a great time to purpose those funds to something that is more important to you.

Love Coach James