Go easy on yourself

I'm a perfectionist by nature. I often feel that if I don't do something right, there's no point to doing it at all.

Now that I'm a Mom, this mentality tends to rear its head when it comes to day-to-day tasks - dishes, laundry, sweeping, etc. If I don't keep things up regularly (and efficiently), I often feel that I'm falling behind and things are getting out of control. I watch Hoarders and wonder, what is the tipping point? Many of the so-called hoarders are really just people who have lost the desire and/or ability to keep the house in order.

Efficiency is a big thing for me these days. Doing more in shorter periods of time, doing two things concurrently, etc. I've made improvements in this area which I'm hapy about, but some days I'm slower, more forgetful, sluggish, etc. and then I have the tendency to berate myself for not being on-the-ball.

My Mom often reminds me that I don't have to be a perfect mom - that there's no such thing. But this is something I need to remind *myself* more often!

I woke up this morning with a foggy head and slight headache which progressed to a full-blown migraine by early afternoon. I had a zillion things I wanted to do during S's nap, but instead I actually followed the age-old advice and slept while baby slept. I woke up still feeling somewhat foggy, but significantly better. And then I allowed myself to take it easy the rest of the day. Sure, I still had S to take care of, dinner to make, dishes to do, etc. - but my wonderful and intuitive husband was right there by my side helping out, and I didn't set any stardards for myself in terms of how long each task should take and how many "extra things" I felt I needed to accomplish on top of the regular stuff.

I decided to go easy on myself. I don't do this often, but it feels good when I do. I know I'm not going to turn into a hoarder or lose my motivations overnight. Quite the opposite, in fact; this sort of downtime is important in order to recharge and continue to be better in the long run.

Oh, and I didn't (really) think too much about grammar and flow in this blog post. So if it's choppy or a little incoherent, that's why. And I'm not going to worry about that either. ;)

So what about you? Do you need to remind yourself to go easy as well? Is there any other advice you give yourself from time to time to help you stay balanced?