Insta Perfect Life

By Juhi Bansal

Looking at the social media lives of people sometimes makes us jealous but mostly makes us think twice about whether we are doing enough with our time. Take my instagram feed for example. I get so many messages from readers and friends saying how I have the perfect life or how do I do so much in a day. Let me address these one by one.

My life is NOT perfect. Far from it. I have to-do lists where the number of items only seems to grow every day. I live in a constant fear that I am not spending enough time with my daughter or my father. I can’t sleep most nights when I have a major project underway and have pangs of self-doubt every now and then. However, unless you live with me (or work with me) you will not get to know even half of it. Why? Because what’s the point of sharing with the world how messed up my life is? Whose isn’t? However, I will not shy away from sharing the small things (and definitely the big ones) that make my life amazing. Also, give me the darkest of clouds and I will find a small sliver of silver lining in it. I have a fabulous life because I truly believe I do!

Coming to the next point- How do I manage to pack so much in a day? Lets face it- all of us have the same 24 hours and as much as I would like to believe it- I am NOT a Superwoman. The trick lies in “prioritizing” tasks and then “sharing” some, “delegating” the less important ones and “deleting” the unimportant ones.

For example: I barely do any household chores at all- everything is delegated to my woman Friday. Weekdays, we do not have any help in the morning so the 3 of us divide chores- K cooks breakfast, I help Iy get ready and Iy lays the dining table.

I ask for help whenever and wherever required but I also make sure I do away with unnecessary dependence. I would rather take an Uber than have a driver and prefer to put bills on auto pay rather than spending time doing it every month or getting someone to do it for me.

I had read somewhere that out of the 6 things in life: Career, Family, Fitness, Passion, Friends, Travel as much as you try you cannot have it all. I see that in my life. I would like to believe that I have managed to balance them all but the truth is I tend to constantly pick one over the other. Sometimes travel wins and sometimes job. I think that’s the trick. Keep trying different combinations of the above and see what works for you. I shall try and share some more snippets from my life (fabulous or not) in the coming weeks.

In other news, still having a lot of fun layering for Ahmedabad winters: