It’s OK to fall behind if you hold yourself accountable

I love planning. I love writing my schedule down in my planner and I love crossing items off my to do list. I hate falling behind. If you couldn’t tell, I’m a Type A person. 

However, I have slowly learned to accept that life doesn’t always have to be completely planned out and that it’s OK to leave some space in my schedule for random moments of fun, or dare I say it: relaxation. I actually wrote about this in 2017, so I clearly am still working on easing my mind in regard to my schedule. 

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I wanted to post a YouTube video today. If you’ve kept up with me, you know that I made New Year’s resolutions for the first time ever this year and that posting to YouTube three times per month is on the list. I won’t lose sight of that goal. I wanted to post a video today, but I realized I needed to give my body a break. I had an unexpectedly crowded weekend and I was exhausted by the time my Monday (which is actually Tuesday for me) hit. I let myself relax. I let myself miss some of those things I wanted to delete from my to do list. Why? Because I hold myself accountable and I know I will get the important things done.

Of course everything I set my mind on doing is “important,” but in reality, not everything can come No. 1 on the list. That’s where accountability comes in. If I need to do it, I will get it done — even if it means switching my intended plans around. One thing my New Year’s resolutions have taught me this year is doing just that: Working towards completing my to do list, but being flexible and relaxed enough to have the ability to rework my life so that it better suits whatever I have going on in it. 

So, while I wanted to post a video today, I know that I already posted one this month and have enough time to get the other two published in time to meet my goal of posting three videos each month. Rather than beating myself up over it like I maybe would have in the past, I accept that something has happened that warrants a remodeling of my schedule and will hold myself accountable to get it done in time. A huge part of this is setting boundaries for yourself and communicating those to the people in your life, but that’s a whole other topic I could go on a rant on at another time. 

I hope what you have taken out of this post is that it’s OK to fall behind if you hold yourself accountable. Because even when you fall behind, the race isn’t over and you have the chance to catch up. Next week, I’ll have a video to share. Mark my words!