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Paula Rizzo describes how a ruptured appendix forced her to stop overworking and rethink her life. She learned to curate her to-do list, say no, outsource tasks, and prioritize self-care instead of burning out.
Paula Rizzo describes how a ruptured appendix forced her to stop overworking and rethink her life. She learned to curate her to-do list, say no, outsource tasks, and prioritize self-care instead of burning out.
I was just doing way too much. But I was too busy doing too many things, so I completely ignored all the things that my body was telling me, like the dull pain that wouldn't go away for 2 days. So I finally went to the hospital and they said, "Oh, you know, your appendix actually ruptured, so that's really dangerous." And I was like, "No, no, I think it's probably food poisoning. I think I'm probably fine. Could I go home?" And they were like, "No, you're gonna be here for a while." So that's when I started to realize all the stuff that came off my to-do list, a lot of it got done anyway. Other people did it, you know, at Fox at the time I was working there, other producers did it for me. I could just take some other things and the world still spun. It's amazing. So when I started to feel better and I started to recover and all of that, I noticed that I was really intentional about what I decided to put back on the list. Everything that gets on my to-do list really like It has to deserve its spot to be there. Because it's not like I didn't get stuff done. I still got stuff done, but in a different way. So I said, let me take some time and make a list of all the things that I actually want in my life. I wanted to travel more. I wanted to have every month at least to travel once in the month. And so I put that down on my list. I wanted to not have to talk to anybody really until at least 11:30. And so now that's kind of what I do. To be able to say no is sometimes so difficult. I get it, we want to say yes. We want people to like us. But then if you're saying yes to somebody else, are you saying no to yourself? Are you saying no to something that you should be doing? I'm a big, big believer in outsourcing, but also taking things off your list, right? To say, "I don't actually need to do this at all," and get you to a place that's less stressed and more happy and more free. And maybe you're putting things on your to-do list like yourself and your own self-care and all of that on the list because that's super important.
