Does It Have to Be You?

Exercise:

1. Write down all the activities that you typically do in a day, such as:

drive in the car pool
do laundry
pay bills
make phone calls
write
work out
get the mail
read
work with clients
play with the kids
plan upcoming travel
coordinate volunteers for charity event
go to the grocery store
cook supper
watch TV

2. Now put an asterisk next to the tasks that only you can do. So the asterisked items might be:

write
work out
read
work with clients
play with the kids

3. Find a way to get the un-starred items off your plate.

You may need to hire someone, or you may need to simply ask some of the other grown-ups in your life for help.

Teach the kids to do the laundry, and get a co-chair to work with the volunteers.

Yes, you will have to get over some of your perfectionism -- nobody else is going to do as good a job cooking dinner or sorting the laundry as you do.

But guess what? You have bigger fish to fry.

Your creative life is never going to take precedence over your everyday life unless you make it happen.