Setting Boundaries in Purple
Establishing boundaries is an essential part of life. Parents set boundaries for their children, teachers set boundaries in their classrooms, and OSHA and FERPA set work place boundaries. Boundaries are designed to protect us. God gives us boundaries. (1 John, Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:10, 2 Timothy 3:2-5, Exodus 20:1-26, Colossians 1:10, Philippians 4:8-9; just to name a few).
Establishing boundaries is also critical to ones health. I am a bit of a work-a-holic, and I tend to get overzealous and I try to do more than is necessary. It drives me crazy and it drives my students crazy. I tend to spend more hours pouring over lesson plans and grading mountains of homework instead of resting. Recently, I began to feel overwhelmed, and it dawned on me that I needed to establish some boundaries in my life. As I pondered and prayed, a list started to develop:
1. Keep work at work. While I do need to keep grading at home-sometimes- I have office hours where I can complete things like grading and lesson planning.
2. It is okay to say "no." It is a natural human response to say "yes", in order to get people to like us ( we all want to be liked) or to earn favor with our superiors. However, saying "yes" too many times fills up our schedules with unnecessary activities which take away from the most important things in our lives: God and family. An unnecessarily busy schedule robs us of our chance to rest. While having things to do, meaningful things, is good, it isn't good to have too much of it.
3. Determine the end result. I have to ask myself these questions: What is the point of my work? Who is it benefiting? Is my work helpful or acting as a hindrance? If my work is simply there to keep me busy or to earn extra cash, then I have to reevaluate my motives. Since I don't get overtime-then why am I keeping myself busy? When it comes to extra work in my career, who is it benefiting? Am I doing it to make myself look good in front of my bosses or am I doing it to improve my skills and aide my students? If it doesn't then it has to stop. Finally, if my work hurts me and creates extra stress for my students, then I need to reevaluate my class schedule and the work I give them.
4. Acknowledge that rest is good. It is so easy to get wrapped up in work that we forget that without rest we stretch ourselves thin. Take time to rest. Go for a walk. Take a weekend trip. Visit a museum. Go for a hike. Knit a sweater. Do something to take your mind and body out of its shift work mode, or 9-5 mode. God rested and so should we. He commands it. Work is not a bad thing. It is actually quite good, but like I said earlier, too much of a good thing makes it bad. Enjoy your work, but enjoy your time of rest as well.
This is a little number I wore earlier this week.
Black Layering Tee: JCP
Black Layering Skirt: Apostolic Clothing
Purple Dress: Mod Cloth
Red shoes: gift
Establishing boundaries is also critical to ones health. I am a bit of a work-a-holic, and I tend to get overzealous and I try to do more than is necessary. It drives me crazy and it drives my students crazy. I tend to spend more hours pouring over lesson plans and grading mountains of homework instead of resting. Recently, I began to feel overwhelmed, and it dawned on me that I needed to establish some boundaries in my life. As I pondered and prayed, a list started to develop:
1. Keep work at work. While I do need to keep grading at home-sometimes- I have office hours where I can complete things like grading and lesson planning.
2. It is okay to say "no." It is a natural human response to say "yes", in order to get people to like us ( we all want to be liked) or to earn favor with our superiors. However, saying "yes" too many times fills up our schedules with unnecessary activities which take away from the most important things in our lives: God and family. An unnecessarily busy schedule robs us of our chance to rest. While having things to do, meaningful things, is good, it isn't good to have too much of it.
3. Determine the end result. I have to ask myself these questions: What is the point of my work? Who is it benefiting? Is my work helpful or acting as a hindrance? If my work is simply there to keep me busy or to earn extra cash, then I have to reevaluate my motives. Since I don't get overtime-then why am I keeping myself busy? When it comes to extra work in my career, who is it benefiting? Am I doing it to make myself look good in front of my bosses or am I doing it to improve my skills and aide my students? If it doesn't then it has to stop. Finally, if my work hurts me and creates extra stress for my students, then I need to reevaluate my class schedule and the work I give them.
4. Acknowledge that rest is good. It is so easy to get wrapped up in work that we forget that without rest we stretch ourselves thin. Take time to rest. Go for a walk. Take a weekend trip. Visit a museum. Go for a hike. Knit a sweater. Do something to take your mind and body out of its shift work mode, or 9-5 mode. God rested and so should we. He commands it. Work is not a bad thing. It is actually quite good, but like I said earlier, too much of a good thing makes it bad. Enjoy your work, but enjoy your time of rest as well.
This is a little number I wore earlier this week.
Black Layering Tee: JCP
Black Layering Skirt: Apostolic Clothing
Purple Dress: Mod Cloth
Red shoes: gift
Our whole word is set up so that no one rests. The lights are on 24/7 for most places, and workers never stop working for companies. We've definitely forgotten what God wants us to do---to rest.
ReplyDeleteYou pull off the color purple well. ;-)
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