This past weekend, I was sitting on the floor with Little E playing and something felt different. I felt lighter, more at ease, relaxed and in the flow.
I had to take a moment and reflect on what was different.
Nothing really, our schedules were the same, I’m getting the same amount of sleep as I have for the last year or so, nothing was out of the ordinary; except I had hired a house cleaner to come every few weeks. She started a month ago, and I’m really starting to feel the impact that it is having on my life and relationships.
I made the decision to search for someone to clean my house when I was attending Live Free back in October. In one of the workshops we discussed delegating and creating more space in our schedules and life for the events and people that were most important.
The whole discussion reminded me of another time that I used the same principles to create space and ease in my business, back then the speaker at a marketing event talked about “plugging the leaky holes in your sink”.
The leaky holes being all of the tasks and areas of business that are not in your zone of genius or that you dislike and then plug them by delegating them to others.
Because, even if you are more than capable of doing them but you dread even thinking about it and it drags on you and your ability to be present to what’s actually important. They need to go, you need to let them go.
It makes perfect sense, for some reason we can adapt and ask for help when it comes to our jobs, freeing up time means you have more opportunity to do your best work and make more money.
But our homes and our family life, that’s another story. We can’t measure rewards as easily and so instead we isolate, and do everything ourselves. We make excuses as to why it can only be us that can get it done.
Maybe somebody else can’t do it exactly or as perfectly as you can, but if its getting done and you don’t have to be doing it, then what are filling your time up with. More Play, More Self-Care, More LIFE!
And if your leaky sink solution is a stretch financially, it may take some creative solutions to come into play, but before you write it off as being out of the question, check it out.
Actually see how much it is, and then look at your budget. Maybe, a couple less Starbucks trips a week and letting go of some cable channels that you’re not watching more than covers it. Perhaps you can make a trade with a girlfriend or maybe it just means sitting down with your hubby and redefining who does what.
For the longest time, I thought to myself a house cleaner would be so awesome, I HATE cleaning, extra emphasis on the HATE but it’s too expensive. So on the weekends, prior to Little E, Sheldon and I would spend our Saturday mornings cleaning.
Then adding a baby into the mix, we were trying to get it in whenever we could. Juggling time when I wasn’t working between playing with Little E, vacuum and washing floors, and attempting to squeeze in a little time for me.
I was doing it, but the truth is it wasn’t working, something was always getting missed. I was distracted and rushing and it was Me, Little E or my house that was getting left out. I just didn’t have enough time and I was finding myself in line at Starbucks more often that I want to admit, just looking for 5 minutes to chill out.
So last month I looked into it. Yes, it’s still a bit of a stretch for us, but I have taken it out of the realm of luxury into necessity and rearranged our budget to make it work.
The trade off, is priceless, immeasurable to anyone except me.
My house is clean, my mind has one less thing to think about and I get to spend my extra time with the people I treasure the most.
I’m no longer waiting for nap time to come so I can pull out the vacuum, I get to play on my weekends and make memories with my little guy and during nap time I get to put my feet up and read a magazine, move my body or connect with Sheldon. I get to do whatever I want!
It’s way more fun than cleaning bathrooms.
So I challenge you to have it all without doing it all.
In the comments below what is one thing that you want to delegate, what’s it going to take for you to make it happen and how will you spend extra time?
XO
Ashley
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