It think we can all agree that the start of 2021 has been much like most of 2020. With so much going on in the world, it’s hard to keep your mental health stable and focus your energy on what truly matters.
Winter walks with the boys have been great for mental health!
2020 was a transformational year for me, one in which I’ve blogged extensively on:
I went through a lot of growth last year, both personally and professionally. I setup systems in my life that helped me foster that growth. I read more. I took online courses. I focused on my fitness and wellbeing. I invested a significant amount of my time and energy focused on myself, my achievements and ultimately scratched an everlasting itch to always be getting shit done.
As 2021 has progressed and, in particular, as my work has become more demanding and intense, I’ve taken a bit of a different approach.
I’ve been doing a whole lot of nothing.
This isn’t to say that I’ve been phoning it in. In fact I find myself more engaged in my work these days and I’m really enjoying the challenges that it provides. But beyond that, and to act as a counter-balance, I’ve been focusing on spending a lot of down time at the end of my day and on weekends. No reading, no writing, no courses, no deliberate growth activity. Just hanging out - going out for walks, watching TV & sports, playing video games and spending time with the family.
Brené Brown has blogged, written and podcasted (is that a word?) extensively on the concept of “play” - time within your life where you do things with no particular end goal or achievement. It’s been refreshing to apply some of these techniques to my life and has an added benefit of connecting closer with my kids.
One thing that I haven’t compromised is my physical and mental fitness. I still meditate every day. I get at least 60 mins of activity each morning before my day starts. But what I have done is put more downtime into my exercise. For example, a few times a week I only do yoga and stretching to allow my body to relax, rest and recover.
There is a part of me that’s concerned that with such large investment in my growth in 2020, that I’m starting to slow down. Life is short! But ultimately I feel growth and learning comes in waves and there will be a time again soon in which I have that lust for personal growth again. Today I was inspired to write this blog post, so perhaps I’m already starting to turn a corner!
But until then, I plan to continue to have a lot of unstructured downtime with my family and “play” more. For your own mental health, I suggest you do the same!
