Have you ever heard of the old saying 'physician heal thyself?'
or 'before you can help others, you have to
help yourself?' I'm sure many of us are familiar with these sayings but how many of us take this very practical advice to heart...
Personally, I know that I am very guilty of this because I get so wrapped up in making sure that my clients are taken care of and that my family is okay that I completely forget or neglect to take care of things for myself; I have fallen behind in areas both personally and professionally and it's time for that to stop.
Professionally, I have been very inconsistent in writing blog posts for myself, updating my website (which is in need of an overhaul), and posting on some of my social media accounts (with Pinterest being the exception; I stay up for HOURS at night pinning...). Again, when it comes to my clients I have a system in place where I schedule out their posts and blogs and actively seek out new and interesting content, but do I do the same for myself...of course not!
It's easy to post for my clients because that is my job: I provide quality content to raise their visibility and increase their bottom line and get paid to do so. I think the problem when it comes to posting for myself is that I don't view it the same way and that is wrong: each blog post, Facebook and Twitter post, or Pinterest pin puts my name out there, shows potential clients what I'm about and what I can do, and that can translate into money.
I think the problem too is that sometimes at the end of the day, my brain is so tired that I don't want to even think about trying to come up with a timely article or funny tweet or eye-catching pin for myself and I just want to shut down. That's fine, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that; as a matter of fact it's perfectly healthy, but for me I plan on creating a content calendar and building up a reserve of posts so that when I have one of those days I can just access my content stash, schedule a post and keep it moving!
Personally, I have a really bad habit of starting and stopping when it comes to exercise. I have damn near a complete home gym down in my basement and almost every workout DVD known to man and I still can't seem to workout on a consistent basis and that is just inexcusable!
Now part of this comes from my hatred of working out, but since I don't have the luxury of eating whatever, not working out, and not gaining any weight (those days are long gone) I have no choice but to do something. Once again, I will make a workout calendar for myself and start very slowly with a couple days a week and build from there; I'm not trying to be a size 2, I'm just trying to be healthy.
All these things sound so simple, and as I write them down seem completely reasonable, but again it all goes back to those old sayings and the one that I will now adopt as my mantra: before I can help anyone else, I have to help myself!
