Motivations

One of the biggest motivators? My children. 

I remember when I was young, before marriage or children. I could afford it then to be unorganized. Then I had my first child. I couldn't get much done, but I could still "afford" to be unorganized. Fast forward to having three children, and I'm still just as unorganized, but at a major cost. My disorganized house, time and life don't let me enjoy my children. During the day, I stress out and every night, I sulk over how "mean" I was to my kids. I know a lot of my impatience has to do with my lack of organization. Although unorganized, I crave organization. In my attempt to create order, I end up being strict or rigid about things that don't matter as much. That obviously creates more friction.

This talk by Nouman Ali Khan talks about what our children crave from us, but only for a limited time. Every elder I speak to gives the same reminder, they grow up too fast. I'm not trying to say I want to leave everything and only be with my kids. A big problem of mine has been not having enough "me" time. But what am I doing to make my time with them quality time? I find that this generation has a hard time giving quality time when all their time is together. It's more likely for mother's who are working to give their children "quality" time because it's limited. There is an urgency and focus on it. As opposed to a stay at home mom, who is with them all day, it is less likely to focus full attention. Or perhaps their amount of quality time is the same, but feels less because of all the "not quality" time in there :)

In any case, I know I hoped to enjoy my children a lot more than I currently do. I hope I can organize myself, my time and my responsibilities, well enough to enjoy and properly raise my kids.