Work/Life Chaos

Just so you all understand I am pretty great at completely underestimating life challenges (which also makes for entertaining stories I guess). My name is Drew Vincent, I’m a 30 year old single guy with a great job and very full life. I recently bought a house this last September, finally moved in this December and since then have done nothing but project after project. I figured I could do most of the work in a few weeks, wrap things up and still enjoy the summer. After getting a month or so into reno’s things weren’t going quite exactly as I had planned. I was making progress but I was feeling trapped working day in day out in what felt like a renovation prison. Oh and I also bought a puppy, which although I think I hit the puppy jackpot has also of course slowed everything down further.

On occasion I did manage to have a few friends over, host the odd dinner, or board game night but unfortunately always having to walk over a ditch in the back yard, or step over the drywall dust made my head race and mind wonder to all the things I still had left to do.

Fridge Relocation

Mandatory Bathtub Update

Building a Backyard

At the same time as I was attempting my massive undertaking of a renovation I also happened to have taken on some big projects at work. I was in my second year of a year to year contracted job and I knew I needed to make some big impressions so I could guarantee myself a third and forth. This constant pressure caused me to rarely feel comfortable in what I was doing. If I wasn’t thinking about reno’s I was thinking about work, if I wasn’t thinking about work I would be feeling guilty for neglecting my dog, and unfortunately all the time I feeling terrible for neglecting my friends and family.

Just to top things off, I have also committed myself to the lofty goal of competing in one of the World’s most difficult Triathlon’s ‘Challenge Roth‘ this July. This meant on top of my renos and work and life…I needed to be training rigorously 7 days a week (I told you I was pretty great at underestimating challenges).

Needless to say my stress was piling up and I was beginning to feel like there was no escape.

Light at the end of the tunnel

My Oasis

Last night I had some friends over for a BBQ. We were making shish-kabobs (a personal BBQ favourite of mine), after spending some time prepping in my kitchen we decided to move outside to cook and relax on my patio. While I was walking out of my house to my BBQ I was suddenly struck by an elated realization, I hadn’t been thinking about work or reno’s for the past couple hours, more over, I realized I was really happy for a change. This was the first time that I had actually had that sense of ‘wow, this is exactly what I always wanted. The things that were the most important to me were right in front of me, not costing me anything but time and attention.’

I thought back to some of the most passionate and content times in my life, Being part of Enactus in college, crushing out work projects, taking time out for a BBQ with friends, rocking my own version of epic meal time years ago (another story for another time). All of those times I had given my complete undivided attention to what I was working on and I had loved it. Incredibly hard work and focus went into my favourite projects but it didn’t seem to matter the scope or scale, as long as I had clear goals and I gave them 100% present they made me happy.

Now, for some reason I had lost that balance and clarity. I would often find myself zoning out of conversations/emails/calls etc with my to do list firing up in my mind. I would constantly become distracted and then need to back track because my of my wasted time. Even if I was out on my bike for a beautiful ride (often 3+ hours) I wouldn’t get to fully enjoy the experience as I always felt anxious to finish so I could get going on my ‘next project.’ It was insane! My favourite thing in the world was getting out on my bike and just gliding along the road, climbing a mountain and screaming down at 90+kph, yet my mind wouldn’t let me enjoy it because I needed to get to back to something else? That doesn’t even make sense…

Challenging myself to be better

The reason I am joining Ryan on this challenge is because I need to rediscover a balance with my passion for activities, executing my big life goals and stopping to enjoy the moment. At work I am unhappy that I am not getting more done and progressing, at home I am frustrated that I have so many more reno’s and work to do and with my training I am feeling an extreme time crunch just to get it done. I want to work on the satisfaction time because I enjoy all of those things, I just need to be able to focus and enjoy one at a time.

It is my hope that through mindfulness, meditation and a whole lot of organizational strategy that I can get myself on the path to feeling the happiness and contentment that I so desire.