It’s not a question many people get asked or stop to think about, but it should be.
We spend so much of our time focusing on other people’s needs. This past year especially, we’ve had to focus a lot of our time and energy on the people we care about. On their health, their safety and what we need to do to support our communities and coworkers.
This week I think we should all stop and ask ourselves what we did that was just for us. Not because we had to do it, or because someone else asked us to do something for them, but something we did simply because we wanted to for no other reason than ourselves.
It’s a hard concept to grasp in some ways. Why would we do something just for us when most of our lives we’ve been taught that exact thing makes us selfish.
The truth is there is nothing selfish about making yourself happy. There is nothing selfish about putting yourself first once in a while. There is nothing selfish about making sure that your needs get met too.
This year has been a year that has seen many of us have to sacrifice. We’ve had to adapt and change almost daily. We’ve had to figure out things we never thought would be our ‘normal,’ but we’ve done it. We’ve not stopped worrying; we’ve not taken time to process everything that happened this whole year. We couldn’t; we still can’t in some ways. There is so much that needs to be done—so many things to still worry about.
That’s why we need to do things for ourselves. We need to make sure we have something in the bank to keep us going. We need to make sure our batteries don’t hit empty so we can keep moving forward.
So this week, do something just for you. Do something simply for the pleasure of you wanting to spend time doing it. Something that gives you back some fire.
You’re worth it!
You deserve it!
I can’t speak to everyone’s experience. I can only speak to my own experience this year. I can only speak about the importance of us all taking just as much care of ourselves as we do everyone around us—the importance of avoiding our own mental burnout, our own physical burnout by investing time in ourselves. Without that, we won’t make it to the end of all this.
I want us all to make it to the end of this. I want us to get to the other side and be able to look back and be proud of how well we did. How hard we all tried. How much we all adapted to be able to get through this year.
So this week, please, do something just for you. Take care of yourself for a change. Put yourself first for a few minutes because you are worth it. Because the world needs you. Because you matter too!
