Don't allow someone else's interpretation of a label color their opinion of you. You're you. You're great! You're enough. You don't need to use it to explain how something did or did not happen. Just by saying you could or could not, that is enough. Frankly, most people (except family and friends) don't care about your reasons except to tear them down anyway.
Few other people experience careers like we do. Our hearts ache with every heartbreaking case. We give everything to our jobs, from our free time, to our last drop of compassion and empathy. And then we are asked to give more. Similar to doctors, EMS, therapists, and disaster relief works, we are asked to do the impossible, usually with lives on the line, and we are expected to always be at our best. We also suffer the same side effects of doctors, EMS, therapists and relief workers, and it's killing us.
I'm a recovering planner junkie. I've tried, investigated and invested in probably about 50 different systems including printables, bound planners, and web/phone apps. I only clicked with a handful of them. After all those attempts I was finally prepared to break the mold and create a system that worked for my needs along with the needs of other pet professionals. The problem with that being that needs changes, priorities vary, and we all range in creativity and simplicity. The project froze for about 8 months, till I fell upon the Bullet Journal system.
You get out what you put in. Everyday. When you live with purpose, everything you do makes life how you want it - today. You're not waiting for an outcome tomorrow. A tomorrow that is not guaranteed. If you can't live in the present, you will never meet your future. Write your story but don't start with yesterday or tomorrow. Always write for today. Plot yourself on a map, then worry about the destination. Forward thinking while important, leads to falling on your face if you don't check the ground under your feet.
A lack of self-care is self-harm. It steals your self away from those who love you, and those who need you. Most of all, it steals you away from yourself. Because you can't give your best if you are not at your best to give.
