Just Breathe

I'm not talking about Faith Hill, here. I'm actually talking about taking a breath -- literally.

The other day, my eye started twitching like I had some kind of disorder and I felt like Big Mike from American Idol was sitting on my chest. I was freaking about all of the things I had to do. It was not a pretty picture. I remembered back to something I had read about enjoying the journey instead of focusing only on reaching the destination. And I remembered what my reaction at the time had been: I was like, "Dude, are you joking? I don't have time to stop and smell the roses; I've got things to do here. I'll wait until I'm 85 to slow down and check out the scenery." If you're a driven, ambitious, goal-oriented person, "enjoying the journey" can often get lost in the shuffle. Yet, I'm learning that finding a way to do it is a necessity.

I feel like every day of my life is a juggling act, and I'm on a tightrope doing the juggling. Between writing new material, practicing, and recording stuff at the studio; promoting my stuff (not to mention that of my clients); managing my freelance writing responsibilities and my job as creative director; building this new media company that I started with my two colleagues; and taking care of family stuff and daily responsibilities, I usually find it hard to breathe, much less enjoy. Every morning when I get up -- practically as a zombie because I've most likely gotten no more than five hours of sleep -- I look at my to do list and it's all over. My heart starts racing like Barbaro and my focus immediately shifts to, "How in God's name am I going to get all of this done?" Then, I get so consumed with chipping away at the to do list that I forget all about enjoying anything. All I'm thinking about is getting to the finish line -- no stopping at the scenic overlooks along the way. Just "go, go, go!"

But the truth is, tomorrow is going to be just like today -- if I let be. There's going to be a to do list no matter what. And even when I accomplish a few of the items on the list, there will be 10 more where those came from. So . . . in the midst of making contact with this industry person, sending an email blast to that list, describing what I ate for breakfast on Twitter, and promoting my latest "big deal" moments on Facebook, I'm making an oath to myself to add one more thing to my list: Taking a breath -- and taking a look at what I have already accomplished, instead of focusing on all I still have to do.

OK, what am I doing spending all of this time on this blog? I've got a million and one things to do today. Outta my way, people.
Ooops....What can I say? Old habits die hard.