I’ve been thinking for a few months about what my day looks like. Now, I know January is the time where we’re all supposed to make resolutions, but what I’m talking about is far more than a plan or a goal. I’m realizing our intentions too often don’t match up with reality. Now, I know there are many reasons for this, but the primary one in my life is intentionality. That word gets thrown around a lot these days, but I’m determined to be deliberate in my life this year.
Unintentionally, in this brief time on the West Coast, a surprising group of wonderful women have been placed into my life, and last week, over coffee and sweets and babies and daytimers, we were talking through what was really important to us. So I sat up later that night, making my list of real values. This year is going to be full of many changes for both Becky and myself.
But my list ended up pretty much what you would expect from me: Christ, family, community, reading, learning, creating a home life for my family, volunteering, good food, disciplined finances, etc. But as I sat up into the night, a few unexpected values found their way onto the list as well: gratitude, wisdom, sleep, fashion, skincare and my appearance, organization, leadership, learning more about the lives of the greats, the study of history, and so on.
So, if I claim gratitude is an important value in my life, then why isn’t there time, blocked out daily, or at least weekly for me to focus on being grateful? Funny, as much as I love watching “Selling New York,” it didn’t make it onto my values list. So why is it I do more of that in a week than I do concentrated thankfulness?
Certainly, sitting down with a cup of tea, a magazine to flip through, and HGTV are one of life’s weekend pleasures, but the key here is, I’m regularly doing that and NOT what I say is important to me. It takes much more energy to sit and write a thousand gifts I’m thankful for, but don’t I get far more mileage in brain and heart power when I’ve done this?
“Timeblocking” is a big buzz word in the independently employed world, so I’ve taken this principle into my own life, and applied the “big rocks/small rocks” principal around making sure each morning I have time with Mr. SIT, a walk to move my body, to take care with my appearance each morning and organizing my day. I’ve blocked out time to read, to cook, to work, to sleep each day. I’ve blocked out hours to shop, to volunteer, to entertain friends in my home, to call those far and dear to me each week. And Southern friends, I encourage you to do the same. Listen, we don’t have to be perfect, but at the end of this year, I’d like the hours I spent in a day to add up to lots of beauty and energy and learning and family, and maybe a little less mindlessly browsing the internet.
How do you all fit in all that’s important to you into your every day lives?
