A setback can look different based on the situation. Regardless of the situation the setback is exactly that. Something that sets us back from continuing on a forward path to attain a goal or to continue maintaining where we are.

How we react to a setback is key in determining the effect the setback will have on us. I have chronic health issues that I have to manage. Recently I had a conversation with one of my medical providers regarding some lab work that came back with high levels of liver enzymes. I had recently begun a new medication – the verdict: discontinue the new medication since it appears that the spike in liver enzymes coincided with the new medicine. This is a setback, I was hoping the new medicine was going to help my situation. I had been on a different medication that after a year stopped being effective. I was told when I started this new medication that it could take up to three months to start being effective and that I was supposed to do lab work every month. I was waiting for the positive effects to kick in, but after one month I am now unable to take this medicine and I have to wait for approximately two months for an appointment with my provider to see where we go from here. In the meantime, I have to get blood work done again in a couple of weeks to see what has happened to the liver enzymes.

My reaction: I got extremely worried about what the test results mean. As is human nature of course my mind jumped to worst case scenarios.

This post got saved as a draft on a Thursday. The following Monday I ended up in Urgent Care after having had a high (105 degree) fever for two days. Turns out I added Pneumonia to the list. Seven days of antibiotics due to the other health stuff going on.

Talk about setbacks. My body said “Stop. Slow down.”, it’s actually been saying that for at least the past seven months, I just haven’t listened. So my body decided to take matters into its own hands. Pneumonia made me slow down, not quite stop all the way. But I idled at least.

Now I’m done with antibiotics and am only feeling slight residual pneumonia yuckiness in my lungs. Tomorrow I go back for another chest x-ray to see if I’ve knocked out enough of it to take my regular medication. And, I have to do lab work to check on the liver stuff.

My son is now on summer vacation, it’s past 11 am and he is still sleeping. He got the hibernating gene from me. So tomorrow he will be my companion to get all this stuff done at the doctor’s.

I’m bouncing back. Initially I wanted this post to be about thought patterns and how they can help or hinder us when we’ve had a setback. But life happened and this is what it turned into.

What a difference a day makes… 24 little hours.

Well, in theory we have 24 hours each day to accomplish whatever it is we want to or need to accomplish. I’ve often joked that if I had 36 hours in a day it would be very beneficial for me. An extra 12 hours to fill with stuff.

And we all have the same 24 hours but how is it that some people seem to accomplish so much more within the same time. So how do people do it. Is it because they have some magic formula? Do they have tons of extra help? Do they not do anything?

I was listening to a Podcast the other day that discussed the concept of Net time. And it made sense to me when I was listening. (I have to figure out which podcast it was so I can post it here). It’s like a paycheck you have your gross salary – what you theoretically get paid and then your net salary – what you actually take home after taxes and any other deductions. So it’s the same with time – our gross time is 24 hours: for everyone, and the net time varies by individual – 24 hours with deductions for sleep, eating, other necessities to survive.

So the important task is to figure out how much net time we actually have and then figure out how much of that net time is dedicated to things like work, commuting, running errands, housework, and so forth.

For example, we start with 24 hours – suppose someone sleeps 7 hours = 17 hours remain. One hour for personal care – shower, getting dressed, hair, makeup if worn, tooth brushing, face washing, etc = 16 hours remain. 2 hours commuting = 14 hours. A full time job 9 hours, 8 hours work with one hour for lunch = 5 hours remaining. Now this may be a bit stretched in some areas but let’s just suppose we only have 5 hours remaining, this does not include meals other than the hour for lunch included in the work day. How is it that we are supposed to accomplish so much in approximately 5 hours.

When we begin to look at net time we can begin to have more realistic expectations of what we can do. In 5 hours of net time is it realistic to have a “perfect picture perfect” home? is it realistic that our kids be involved in three different evening activities? Is it realistic that we will have frequent dinner dates, girls’/boys’ nights out? How realistic would those expectations be? So if it is not realistic to expect that in 5 hours, we convince ourselves that we have 24 hours instead and then beat ourselves up for not accomplishing everything we unrealistically want to accomplish, because in reality we still only have about 5 hours.

So, the challenge is for you to figure out how much net time you have and then create a realistic plan for how you will utilize that time, making sure to include time for leisure, relaxation, taking care of yourself. As well, as the necessities of eating, housework, finances, errands – basic household management. Hopefully, with a more realistic concept of the actual time available it will be less stressful to utilize the net time that is actually available.