Over-Excited

“I’m excited about it. I’m also excited for it to be over.”

This is a common sentiment. Sometimes really great things are still work; still intense. The best moments of your life might rapidly become torture if you had to maintain that energy every day.

This isn’t a contradiction! We need a variety of all sorts of stimuli in our lives. I love a quiet night in with a book – but seven of those in a row and I start to go a little stir-crazy. I also love doing escape rooms, but I don’t want to do them every day.

Don’t feel bad about stepping back from something and taking a breather. But remember – the finish line isn’t the finish line. Sometimes we’re so eager to be done with something, even something we love, that we don’t put the proper bow on it. We allow the true value of the moment to escape our lives without “getting what we came for.”

This is especially true when a particularly good moment requires a lot of prep work. Consider a huge party that you prepare for weeks in advance. You’re doing weeks of work for a single day/night of fun, and by the time the date arrives, you’re just so eager to put all the work and stress behind you that you don’t even enjoy the party.

If that’s familiar, then remember – work serves a purpose. If the work is more work than the fun is fun, you’re making a bad bargain with yourself. If you’re repeating “it’ll all be worth it when it’s over” instead of “it’ll all be worth it when it happens,” then you’ve crossed that line.

When you’ve reached that point, stop. You’ve prepared enough; if you can stop preparing right now and still have the event, do it. If you can’t, then abandon it – the event isn’t worth it. And no matter what, enjoy those moments; life is about living it, not waiting for it to be over.