This post is in response to a colleague, Kate Unger, who was looking for feedback on her recent blog post titled: Twilebrities, Comets and Tweets.
First, Katie (forgive me, you will always be Katie to me:), take a deep breath. My number one lesson in life that I continuously tell others is this: There is no balance in life, especially between your professional and personal lives. It simply doesn't exist. Once you give this expectation up, you relieve yourself of some of the feelings you might have that you might be out of the norm, cause your life isn't "balanced." But what I try to do is strive for it and know that life waxes and wanes. Nothing is ever perfect. Some weeks the business side of things throws me over the edge. Many times my personal life (3 boyz, 1 with diabetes, extended family, crazy busy husband ... the list goes on and on) completely impedes on my professional life and that's OK. Cut yourself some slack. I constantly forgive myself.
I think one of the other things that might be going on here is the truth to social media. And I admit I do this all the time. I tend to report on only the positive things in my life because I don't want to come across as whining. But is that really fair to others?
I will tell you a little secret: Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I cry because I am simply exhausted, running between my personal, professional and online lives. And some days simply suck. And sometimes my day-to-day interactions throw me completely over the edge. And sometimes I can barely put one foot in front of the other... but I do. Because I am learning to treat myself better so I don't get to that point, quite as often. And I do the best I can. So I apologize to you if I come across as everything is hunky dory, when somedays it simply isn't.
I was speaking at an event not too long ago and someone asked me if there isn't a false sense of reality on social media. That question has stuck in my head. So, I've made it a point to not gloss over something in my life but be truthful and honest with myself and my networks with what is going on that day. I challenge you to do the same (and your blog post was great!). Sometimes a simple truth posting can then in turn, actually make you feel better.
It's no secret that personally, my son's struggle with type 1 diabetes, continues to be one of the greatest challenges to me and my family's lives. Recently I gave a speech in front of 350 people about his fight and the impact on our family. My husband video taped that speech but it took me 3 weeks to post. Why? Because I cried and cried hard during that speech. Then it took my next steps of courage to post it on YouTube for world wide viewing. But once I started sharing this pain with others and received so many great responses from so many, suddenly I didn't feel so alone and actually started to feel better.
We are multi-faceted as humans. We laugh, love, cry, scream and live. To post only happy things denies who we really are and denies others our human-ness ... that we relate to.
So, yes. Listen to @prsarahevans and @ambercadabra's advice. Set up boundaries that work for you and your family (because one size doesn't fit all) and then relax. Sometimes I have days when I might only tweet once! You are doing the best you can. We all are.
