You'll be tootling along (that's a real phrase where I come from), minding your own business, taking that thing for which you woke up this morning and wearing it out. Then, before you know it, you'll find your focus helplessly scattered like that plastic grass we so foolishly placed in our easter baskets as kids... You remember that stuff. It was so easy and fun to throw around all over the place and nearly humanly impossible to gather back up.
For people like me, a stimulant medication prescribed by your physician may help, but at the end of the day, against this kind of thing, there is only one true game plan, and that is to define your hit list from the beginning.
Not everyone's list should be the same, because we aren't all gingerbread men (or people...take your pick). However, because we are all human and made out of the same stuff, we do all have a lot more in common than you might think. I'm not gonna pretend to know all about you or be the boss of you, I'm not even going to pretend to be good at all of these things, myself (seriously...just ask my wife), but let me share some things I believe make me a little better at focusing my time and, more importantly, living a life of wholeness... hopefully, you'll find them helpful, too.
1. It should be true to who you are. Not in a selfish way that says "It's a free country and I'll do whatever I dang-well please!", but in a way that genuinely allows who you are to be expressed by the way you spend your time. It's cool to spend time improving on skills that you need to sharpen that don't come naturally to you, but that's not the kind of thing that will leave you sleeping well at the end of a long day, unless it's balanced out in good proportion to doing things with which you're already super awesome. Who you are determines your task, not the other way around.
2. Make sure others are benefitting from how you spend your time. This one can be tricky. There's a certain amount of self-care that is necessary to be useful to the world around you. You can't forget all about yourself and then wonder why you have a hard time helping others. Your body, mind, and soul all need to be kept in order to allow for your life to be as effective as possible when pursuing service to others. At the same time, we have to be careful not to become self-absorbed and turn inward. That will only leave us an atrocity in one who is supremely prepared, but completely blinded to all scenarios in which we may be of help.
3. The shorter the list, the better. Would you rather be okay at lots of things or really amazing at a few things? If you're the kind of person who loves to know a little bit about everything and has a head full of typically-useless information, you and I should think twice before spending time together... It could be bad... In the Egon Spengler sense. There's nothing wrong with being the naturally curious type and having a well-rounded education, but when your greatest skills, and the use of those skills, begins to suffer on account of just having too much going on, you gotta do some pruning. In the end, the more focused you can manage to be with how you spend your time, the more likely you are to be remarkably effective.
What would you put on this list of "tips?" Is this good stuff or is it all bunk? What's been your greatest key to effectiveness?
Before I wrap this, let me give you one specific thing that is on my list... I have to take time, every day, to maintain and polish the relationship between me and God. Piece of cake, I know...but I have experienced, all too often, how messed up things can get in my life and in everything I do, when I'm spiritually starving. When the wheels are falling off of everything and I'm rattled to my core by the circumstances in my life or by what I have been unable to accomplish, I've seen time and time again that the problem is no further away than in my own soul.
Thanks for sharing a few minutes with me today. I know your time is valuable, so let me share my prayer for you today and send you off to go kill whatever is to be on your plate today...
God, thank you for the day that you have given us and for the greatness we see in the world you have created. It can be a tough thing to know our place in this world, but I know that, through you, we can know ourselves and our role in the world better than ever. Please bless everyone who reads this post with a renewed sense of purpose in life and help them to know that purpose deeper with every day that passes. Thanks for loving us and being intricately involved in our lives. Thank you for sacrificing your son so that we can know you and be fully known by you. In the name of Jesus I pray all these things. Amen.
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