Hello my fellow Women of Fabulousness! So, as I spoke to work friends about how much I had to do at home and how I just didn’t have the energy. That night when I went home to watch TV and check out Facebook, I was flooded with ads for apps about procrastination. So, the more I read about the websites and apps I can purchase, they all seem to be talking to me. “Are you a perfectionist?”, “Have you been putting off projects for months, even years, and these tasks generally take small blocks of time?”, “Do you feel lazy even though you don’t really think you are?” Well, these lines screamed out to me like a beacon. I looked over a few and before my sanity overtook my need to be cured, I signed up and prepaid for a year of an app. Trust me, I am shaking my head as I type this. I mean, do they realize that the people that suffer from things such as anxiety, OCD, procrastination, perfectionism, etc., will pay for this and then never look at it? Of course they do. So the site I chose has challenges and one of the challenges is consistent bedtimes for 2 weeks. I thought that sounded fabulous as I wanted to be able to enjoy my time awake and not have to do constant math beginning at p.m. regarding how much sleep can I get, how much I need, and can I make it through my next workday if I am tired from staying up too late. I was doing very well with this and even incorporated a consistent wake up time for 2 weeks also. Now, before I get too ahead of myself, let me tell you my schedule now. I get up at 5 am, leave for work at 7:52, work, come home around 5-5:30, go to bed at 9, turn off the phone by 9:30, and start the whole thing the next day. Before I leave for work, I generally do school work, as structure keeps me awake in the morning. So, for one day, I forgot to mark on my little calendar on the app that I had stuck to the routine one night. Now it is showing that I failed my first attempt. What in the actual heck? I mean, this is an app that is supposed to encourage me and now it makes me feel defeated even when I have accomplished my goal. I am sticking with the schedule just to see if it has long term effects. So far, I am sleeping very deeply. Waking up knowing I cannot decide if I should go back to sleep is a great relief in the morning. But now I am seeing this more as a metaphor for women. I mean, we accomplish so much. We take care of our families, we work, whether inside the home or outside, we are the anchor in our homes, and no one notices until something isn’t done. Even those of us that are single, even we don’t give ourselves a break. So, what is a fabulous female to do? First of all, let’s all agree to give ourselves a break. Men have this ability inherently. I am not bashing men or saying one sex is superior. I am saying that our minds are mapped a bit differently. Not better, not worse, simply different. Men do not second guess their decisions anywhere near as much as women. Women feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. We never seem to let up on ourselves or give ourselves a break. We aren’t perfect, nor should we strive to be. We need to strive for happiness in a way that both benefits ourselves, our family, and if possible, society. Society can be just a neighbor, a store clerk, your town, country, or all of humanity. No one knows your strengths and interests better than you do so why are we constantly measuring ourselves against others? This needs to stop. For our own sanity. And the sanity for our daughters, nieces, and other young females looking up to us. And the marvelous thing about this? The young men in our and our young females’ lives will know that females are to be respected and cherished.