Focus, Focus, Focus

Here's the real low-down on what's going on in my world right now and maybe yours too.  My Dad is on hospice care which means six months or less and he's been on hospice care for two months.  It's excruciating to visit him now...my vibrant, hard charger of a Dad is fading away.  My heart breaks every time I leave wondering if this is the last time I'll see him.  As with many families in times of stress, some family members are becoming more prickly, more isolated, and more edgy...and this might be me too.

My decision to talk about this came as I heard from more and more friends and fellow business owners they were facing the same thing and struggling to keep their business afloat at the same time.  I'm sure it's no coincidence that it was women sharing their stories of balancing their parents, children, grandchildren and their business.

During the first month or so I found myself having a glass of wine every night or reaching for the bag of chips or taking a Tylenol PM and going to bed at 8:00.  Well, that's only helpful for so long and not very practical but I was still struggling emotionally on so many levels...how do I maintain my emotional equibrium and how do I nuture my business at the same time?

At networking events, on teleseminars, any business book or blog there's lots of chatter about focusing on our business and we do except when we don't.   Our personal world collides with our business world on a daily basis and mostly we smoothly transition from one to the other but when a game changing incident rocks our world it's disorienting.  What is our priority.....what's a need...what's a must...and what's a should...and what's a nevermind?

When we take diving into a bottle of wine or a package of Oreos off the table what's left?  Rational, thoughtful choices, that's what.  Sit still with the swirling emotions and find the quietness.  I write a list of what I can change and what I can't and remind myself that really I'm in charge of very little in this big, wide universe.  So I take long walks whenever I feel out of control or head down tohe beach and watc the tide...a bit of calmness in nature.

What's your story?  Where do you find calmness?  Please share so we can all support each other through these life altering times.