Saturday 14 April 2012

My bucket was full, so I emptied it a bit..


I heard a great analogy a few years ago when I trained to become a Mental Health First Aid Instructor.
Here is my take on it.*

Everyone has a metaphorical bucket inside them
Some people's bucket is small, some are large. 
Some are made from strong, durable material; some are pretty flimsy. 


Everything that comes up in our lives that is stressful starts to fill our bucket. 
Stress can be positive or negative.
Exams, break-ups, illness, deaths, are all examples of negative stress that add to your bucket starting to fill up. 
Positive things are stressful too, like holidays, a new relationship, a new job. 
As more stressful things happen, your bucket becomes fuller.


When someone experiences a mental illness, it is because their bucket is full and has started to spill over. 
Which mental illness (anxiety, depression, psychosis etc) you have is probably due to genetics, or other personal factors.
But why one person has a mental illness after a couple of stressful events, when the person next to them is fine, comes down to how big and strong your bucket is. 

So anyway, over the last couple of months I have been trying to become a successful Thermomix consultant. I have been trying to excel in studying Law. I have been trying to be a good friend. I have been trying to be a good daughter, and sister. I have been trying to be a perfect mother and wife.

I have not felt like I have been doing any of these things as well as I would like to be. I talked earlier this year about wanting my word of the year to be Joy. I haven't been feeling much Joy at all this year. I've just been too busy.

So I decided that something had to give, and that thing is Thermomix. I'm not giving up cooking with it, that I love and it feeds my soul (and my family!).
But I just didn't feel like I took to the sales aspect of it, and it was taking up precious space in my bucket.
I felt like my bucket was starting to drip, so I tipped out the sales.

It wasn't an easy choice, because I felt like I had given up, like I had failed.

But it was the right thing to do.

I feel lighter now.

How full is your 'bucket' right now? I'd love you to share....
x Sannah 

* Apologies to the owner if it is quite far from your initial description. Alternatively if you want to take credit for it, just drop me a line.
** And no, our poor little blue bucket didn't survive a couple of boys throwing bricks into it to make the splash. I hope no one ever throws a brick into my metaphorical bucket. 

10 comments:

  1. My buckets ok at the moment.
    I found this really interesting, to hear this analogy and think about how this may have effected my PND.

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    1. So glad to hear that your bucket is ok at the moment Jess, xx

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  2. That's a shame about the thermomix consultancy. Still, I'm noticing that it does take up a lot of time.
    I'm aiming for 10 demos and 6 sales this month. ( I want to knock over the 2 hardest GG steps up front.) All of the demos seem to be at the end of the month (only done 5 so far) so it'll be a very busy last week!!

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    1. It is a shame frog dancer, but it is the right decision for me. Best of luck with yours, you seem to have really good clear goals, and with your children being older, hopefully you will have the time to make it happen! xx

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  3. Such a great post. A very true one too. My bucket is relatively full all the time. That really is the nature of life with a disabled child I guess. I have awarded you a blogging award you can read about it here. http://tamarastitterings.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/liebster-award-april-2012.html

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    1. Hi Tamara,
      Thanks so much for your comment, and yes, I can imagine that life with a disabled child would fill your bucket up pretty quickly. I guess some of the things that fill our buckets are things we can't change. Thanks for awarding me the blogging award, that was such a nice thing to do. Possibly a bit on the late side for me to accept ;-) I haven't been managing to keep up with my blog, even with thermomix gone!
      xx Sannah

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  4. I do belive that you were using my bucket, and now it has a hole it. If you want me to keep watering the plants, then you might have to buy me a new one!!

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    1. Hello sweet husband. I hope you aren't getting all touchy feely all of a sudden! You are an engineer after all ;-)
      I will buy you a new bucket. Who knew that asking the boys to throw a brick in it would break it!?! (It was a lot of fun though!)
      xx

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  5. Awesome post and I love the perspective and analogy Sannah.
    My bucket is a little close to full too but two cups stress out, one cup stress in seems to keep it from overflowing.
    Running seems to balance it.

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  6. You remind me of myself. Just recently, after years of striving to be the BEST AT EVERYTHING - I decided to just embrace my personality type and just be me. Which means relinquishing the idea of a hot shot career and just enjoying cups of tea, books and my family. I realised that my happiest life is a "boring" one - and I'm actually completely ok with that.

    I'm glad you gave up the Thermomix stuff. If it's not a good fit for you, there's no point prolonging your unhappiness just so you can say you "didn't give up". Who cares? Just be happy :-)

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