Rebel, Rebel (Blog to Learn, Day 3)

I woke up this morning with Tim Ferriss on the brain, as well as the remnants of a horrible dream in which I was yelling at students for leaving early from choir rehearsal en masse when they should never have been there to begin with. Yesterday, I started reading The 4-Hour Work Week, which managed to fill me with a certain sort of giddy optimism. [When I shared some of the tidbits with a co-worker, it filled her with more than a little disdain, and prompted her to complain about working three jobs. I have to give her some credit; she was having a rough day.] That said, I have marked a certain change in myself, as of late: the desire to treat myself with some kindness, and to stop being so workaholic. There are other joys in life.

It's not as if I didn't realize it before; the need to pay heed to this assertion has been here for a while. I refuse to feel guilty for wanting to sleep or eat. Thus far, I have been ruled by perfectionism and the desire to "fix" everything...broken people, broken situations.... I think I just needed permission to let go of some things and embrace others. There is a difference between waiting for others to grant you that permission and letting them walk all over you. The book is right about this, too: when everyone is doing something the same way, and the results of those efforts are sub-par, it's time to start questioning accepted practices. It's time to start playing the system and selectively breaking some rules.