Do you feeling like your life is perpetually on fast forward? If your life is overloaded with activities, changes, commitments, competition, debts, decisions, expectations, information, media, people, problems, technology, traffic or work; you may have run out of white space!
White space is the margin you leave in your life for the unexpected. White space acts as a safety zone between you and burn out. Be careful, if you live too close to the edge of overload you might fall off and then what? What project fails? What do you forget to do? What relationship gets destroyed? What happens to your health?
When you create white space, you create a buffer for whatever life throws at you. To create white space:
- Accept responsibility – believe it or not, you control the choices you make to overload your schedule. Take control and recognize the choices you make determine the amount of white space.
- Make time – time in your schedule gives you room to breathe, freedom to think, space to heal, opportunities to be innovative and reconnect with what matters most to you.
- Re-evaluate and prioritize – if you don’t decide what is important and make it a priority, others will do it for you. Look at your life and think about whether you are spending it on your top priorities.
- Create boundaries – turn it off, shut it down, say goodbye. You can decide when you will respond or interact with your electronic gadgets. You can walk away from draining situations. You can remove people from your life. Boundaries are essential to white space.
No White Space > Frustration > Stress >
Exhaustion > Irritability > Burn Out…
There is a popular Christmas carol about wishing for a White Christmas. Our wish for you is more white space in your life.