Letting life get on top of you to the extent that you are personally, both physically and emotionally, dragged down by it is the beginning of a slippery slope. There are no hard and fast rules as each of us is different in our circumstances. However, it is easy to find yourself living for other people, for someone else's priorities or diary schedule, leaving very little for yourself. You get physically spent and come home at the end of each day, wiped out, exhausted, unable to make a move other than perhaps a grab for a drink and some fast-food and the TV remote control.
Time is just as much a resource as money and yet we still often struggle with the concept of paying ourselves first. Let me explain. When your income comes in each week or each month, if you will first take 10% of the gross amount and pay it into a savings account, before allowing the rest to be spent on the day to day bills, you know with total certainty that you will have one months income set aside in just ten months, two months in twenty months, etc.
You can recognise the sense of making an investment in your future finances starting now. With this being the case it is surely a simpler thing to invest in your own well-being, and to look at you and your own energy levels and see whether they are up and going up higher, or down and falling. But if I ask you to take your calendar and look at the commitments you have given to other people, what have you got in there for yourself? I am willing to bet that you have given so much away that you have little time in there for yourself.
You need to stake a claim for yourself and be in the place that allows you to nurture yourself and see your own growth. This is what I mean by putting yourself first in your diary.
At the start of this coming week, mark out the diary time you want to set aside for yourself and your values. Do this for the hobbies and activities you want to get on with, and on which you have constantly been procrastinating. There is no-one else out there who will value your own time as much as you can, yet you have to seize the moment and set aside that time as special for you. Do not allow someone else to dictate your diary after work hours.
If your work hours are not productive for you, or if the schedule you work is proving to be counter-productive to leading a life of success and happiness, then you have some planning to do and a decision to make about what it is that you truly want your life to look like. When someone wants you to give them an hour of your life and asks that you give away this time for free, be clear with yourself that such a meeting has value and is either inline with your own intended success or is instead an unproductive distraction. Where that person requests an appointment and you have no wish to give your time away, say so, but feel confident about simply saying "I already have a prior engagement" without feeling the need to say what else you are doing.
Start this week and make a planning appointment with yourself. Could you put thirty minutes each day in your diary that is just for you? What about sitting down and blocking out one day each month that is your day? You could binge watch a series, go out with friends, take part in a class. You could do all three in one day. The point here is to give yourself some time for you.
It could well be the beginning of a wonderful new phase in your life where you begin to see and to experience that you are really free to choose to do those things that you love and enjoy. This will bring you so much benefit that you will find doors opening to you and new people coming into your life with every wish for your best.