Sick Day and Happiness.

I woke up on this beautiful day with a fever, lethargic and weak. I don't necessarily feel "sick" I just feel exhausted, tired, and every few hours I get the chills. Today has been incredibly important to my happiness project though.

I "worked from home today", but I really haven't done much working. I've been too tired. The sad part is, it was a beautiful day. It would have been a great day to "play hooky" and go hiking or spend the day celebrating how wonderful fall is. But not this girl, I spent the entire day on the couch, too weak to even eat until an hour or so ago. and now that it is getting close to a natural time to go to sleep, I finally feel like I have a little piece of energy to share. How fortunate.

The plan until I get tired again? Do work.

How has being sick has helped my Happiness Project? Well, I read an article today. I can't find it now but it was on HuffPost. and it was about things at work you should say NO to! It just added to my list of things that would make my life healthier and me happier. I work for a company that thrives on the amount of unlimited time and energy it's employees can give. Since I've been back, I've caught every single little bug that has gone around. I've worked 7 days a week, around the clock some weeks and I haven't even had a second to get caught up and make sure I am going in the direction I want. Today is the end of that. I can't be sick all of the time, and I am not going to perform better if I don't take care of myself. I am not going to produce more if I don't take care of myself. I am not going to sleep at night if I never force myself to put down the work and go to bed.

So, what am I going to do about it? I have a few ideas in mind.

1. I'm going to talk to my boss. She is on my team and I know she doesn't want me to die from working. I'm going to talk to her about taking some time off during the week, on the weeks that I spend the entire weekend working. I don't think she'll hate me for that and I need to not die.
2. I now have a work curfew. Obviously not tonight, because I didn't work much today. But from now on, I will leave work by 7:30 and I will only pull one late work night a week. This week it will be Saturday because I will be at work until almost midnight.
3. After tonight, I have a bedtime. I will be in bed by 11pm every night. I need it. I need to get out of the restaurant sleep habits that make me feel exhausted all of the time. I want to sleep normal hours and have energy during the day. 5 years in the restaurant have completely scarred my sleep routine, and I'm having the worst time trying to get into a new one.
4. My life routines will take priority in my life. I've always been a person who puts work and school above everything else, but that is just not realistic. I am laying out a new plan to put my life first now. Work will still be a priority (you have to pay the bills right?) But I do not want to be exhausted every single day. I am mentally drained because I allow my life and my personal responsibilities to be a second thought, an after thought. That is just not healthy, it's not how I want to live my life, it doesn't make me feel good about my life.
5. I will NOT feel bad about going home at 7:30 and leaving something for the next day. It is not always possible to get through my whole to do list in one day and I need to accept that!

Have you ever had to redirect yourself so that you don't put the wrong thing first in your life?? How did you fix it?