Here is a question:
Is MORE better?
In your life, what does MORE look like?
MORE....
work
money
volunteers
kids
friends
time
sleep
programming
furniture
books
classes
clothes
shoes
chocolate
I don't know about you but I spend a ton of time dreaming about MORE, which I am realizing means I am not content with what I HAVE.
(This is not to sound preachy... at all.)
I love MORE MORE MORE! I am the most guilty!
Is it me, or does it feel like the MORE _____________ you get, the MORE complicated life gets.
I think this is true for everything.
When I worked for church, I thought the more classes, more events, more outings, more volunteers, and more people that we had, the better our ministries would be.
What I learned was we burned out.
We did too much.
In doing too much, we didn't do a whole lot of anything with excellence, we just did it half way-for the sake of doing it.
I was tired, my team was tired, and we didn't have the energy to do anything anymore.
I spent a lot of time talking about how PRO FAMILY I was-and the church was, but everything we did cancelled out what we said and made it seem we were actually ANTI FAMILY.
The more programming and events we offered, the more people it took to pull it off, the people (the families) who worked so hard for us, never had a chance to be home together.
We were stretching them thin, rushing their time for dinner, for homework, time to just be in the same room together.
You can fill in the blanks of what MORE has done in your own professional and personal life.
I imagine a merry go round, spinning around and around, faster and faster, then realizing that it's going too fast and you are feeling "woozy." It's hard to get the merry go round to stop, there has been too much force and momentum building up to where you find yourself. There are other people involved! They might be enjoying the ride and you feel bad about wanting them to stop-so you can get off!
Sure! You can stay on the ride... but you will end up puking all over your friends and who wants to clean that mess up? I would rather make some people mad, than have them clean up my mess.
Simplify. Do just ONE thing (THE MOST IMPORTANT THING) with excellence, then add something else.
TIP:
Ask yourself what the most important thing in your life is and quit everything else until you are doing that one thing with excellence.
I recently decided to do this. For the last 6 months I have stepped away from everything on my calendar. I am not committed to doing anything. My life has been a big ball of clutter and it was wearing me down. I has not been easy-in fact it has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I am a YES person. I never say NO. .........and that finally caught up to me.
I can tell you that my time looks differently and that I am finally finding time do things that I love again.
Sometimes, you just gotta rebuild yourself.
There was a book mark I had when I was in middle school that said
What is it for you?
Maybe it's your health.
So drop everything that is cluttering up your ability to focus on diet and exercise, so that you can focus on it!
Maybe it's your time-maybe you feel like your calendar is running your life.
So cancel appointments, quit signing up for things, get yourself in control of your time, THEN add to
it.
Let's stop the glorification of more.
Currently listening to: CONSTANT
When I worked for church, I thought the more classes, more events, more outings, more volunteers, and more people that we had, the better our ministries would be.
What I learned was we burned out.
We did too much.
In doing too much, we didn't do a whole lot of anything with excellence, we just did it half way-for the sake of doing it.
I was tired, my team was tired, and we didn't have the energy to do anything anymore.
I spent a lot of time talking about how PRO FAMILY I was-and the church was, but everything we did cancelled out what we said and made it seem we were actually ANTI FAMILY.
The more programming and events we offered, the more people it took to pull it off, the people (the families) who worked so hard for us, never had a chance to be home together.
We were stretching them thin, rushing their time for dinner, for homework, time to just be in the same room together.
You can fill in the blanks of what MORE has done in your own professional and personal life.
I imagine a merry go round, spinning around and around, faster and faster, then realizing that it's going too fast and you are feeling "woozy." It's hard to get the merry go round to stop, there has been too much force and momentum building up to where you find yourself. There are other people involved! They might be enjoying the ride and you feel bad about wanting them to stop-so you can get off!
Sure! You can stay on the ride... but you will end up puking all over your friends and who wants to clean that mess up? I would rather make some people mad, than have them clean up my mess.
Simplify. Do just ONE thing (THE MOST IMPORTANT THING) with excellence, then add something else.
TIP:
Ask yourself what the most important thing in your life is and quit everything else until you are doing that one thing with excellence.
I recently decided to do this. For the last 6 months I have stepped away from everything on my calendar. I am not committed to doing anything. My life has been a big ball of clutter and it was wearing me down. I has not been easy-in fact it has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I am a YES person. I never say NO. .........and that finally caught up to me.
I can tell you that my time looks differently and that I am finally finding time do things that I love again.
Sometimes, you just gotta rebuild yourself.
There was a book mark I had when I was in middle school that said
"THE MAIN THING IS TO KEEP THE MAIN THING, THE MAIN THING."
What is it for you?
Maybe it's your health.
So drop everything that is cluttering up your ability to focus on diet and exercise, so that you can focus on it!
Maybe it's your time-maybe you feel like your calendar is running your life.
So cancel appointments, quit signing up for things, get yourself in control of your time, THEN add to
it.
Let's stop the glorification of more.
Currently listening to: CONSTANT
I hear you, Leslie! I too was on a roller-coaster, saying "yes" to everyone. After all, if someone was asking me to do something, then they really needed/wanted ME to do it, right? How could I let them down? Truth is, I was letting myself and my family down. Took the step of getting off that roller-coaster a few weeks ago and have not felt better. Doing the things that I enjoy, and knowing I have an option to say "no" if anyone asks (that's a hard one to do, when you've spent so long saying "yes"... it's a work in progress, I admit).
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way - I DISLIKE ROLLER-COASTERS!! So why was I on this one? Who knows, but life is much clearer and happier now I am walking away from it.