We are busy. We are
the busiest lot of people that history has ever known. We are also well-intentioned. We DECIDE all the time to make changes, and
we’re serious about making them. How many times have you said out-loud: “Starting
Monday, I’m going back to the gym,” or “Starting tomorrow, I’m cutting out
carbs and sugar.” And we mean what we say. In the end, our plans don’t work out so well. We let what we determine as urgent overtake
what is truly important. Busyness takes
over. Countless things demand our
attention, NOW:
- · Your phone buzzed- a text just came in
- · You get a notification that you’re tagged in a photo and a beep goes off
- · A new deadline at work creeps up
- · You realize that you forgot to prepare lunch for your children or put dinner in the crockpot
- · An e-mail arrives, informing you that an unexpected bill needs to be paid ASAP
This stuff is urgent, and it must be done today. It can’t be postponed or at least it feels
like it. Urgent stuff multiplies like
rabbits. When you kick one item off the
list, two more show up.
THE RESULT: You clear
out the important stuff to make room for the urgent. However, you didn’t do it consciously. It just…happened. You let the urgent take control of your life
and time. When this happens, life
becomes an urgent juggling match. What
ends up happening? You gain weight. Time whizzes by, making you feel like you’re
in a whirlwind, and you feel disconnected from those you love. Your kids are growing up and you feel like
you’re missing something. You never feel
present and you’re always struggling to check tasks off your list. Ideas are “dumbed down” and you trade
busyness for effectiveness. Life feels
cluttered and you feel drained. You
arrive at the end of your day feeling like you have nothing to give, and in
turn you want wine or food to numb the racing thoughts. We zone out on TV and Netflix, or we scroll
aimlessly, wasting large amounts of our free time. We feel frazzled, excessively fatigued, and
we are short with our loved ones when we don’t mean to be. You sense something is wrong or know
something is wrong, but you’re not sure what it is. We don’t set down the urgent things long enough
to take stock, dive deeper, or make critical life changes. And all of this happens while we’re trying hard.
IT’S TIME TO SAY: STOP! It doesn’t have to be this way.
We can clean out some of the urgent stuff and make space for the
important stuff.
Our time is irreplaceable. You can take our clothes, purses,
shoes, or jewelry and at the end of the day we can get more. You can take our cars, and we could get
another one. You can take our homes, and
although it would be devastating, we’d find and secure shelter and new
housing. But OUR TIME…. When we use our
time or when something takes our time, you’re taking something that I can never
replace.
We give our time to all sorts of things, that when we stop
and evaluate our lives, we’d chalk them up to unimportant on the big list of
our priorities. Our busyness and
internal clutter automatically shifts our priorities. IT’S TIME TO CHANGE THAT. It’s time to make plans to change that. It’s time to send a powerful message to
ourselves and to the world saying: I am
important enough that I’m giving ME the energy, space, and time to grow and
create new results.
Today, it’s time to be stirred to experience the gift of
your time in a brand-new way. Every
moment is a gift. Every second is a gift. Every thought is a gift. Every idea is a gift. Every opportunity is a gift. Everyone you meet is a gift. Every day we are
GIFTED with an opportunity to LIVE, and I want us to maximize our capacity for 2018. It’s time to invest in you.
Onward….
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