The next time you’re trying to decide where to go out to eat, what movie to go see, or what to do over the weekend, perhaps consider trying something different.
It’s easy to default to the familiar or the “safe” choice, but new adventures, and perhaps new favorites, are potentially on the other side of a decision to try something different.
“The way you live your days is the way you live your life.” ~Annie Dillard
This quote causes me to look at my life from both a macro and a micro level and assess whether the things I’m doing on a daily basis are moving me closer to or further away from the life I want to live.
When observing from a macro level, I think of the words I would use to describe my life. Would I use words like chaotic, stressful, and uninspiring, or would I use words more like joyful, growing, and energizing? This zoomed-out perspective provides me with a state-of-my-life assessment. Whether I’m happy with the assessment or disappointed by it, I can simply zoom in and look at how I’m living each day.
If I like the state of my life, I can identify daily consistencies that cause this outcome, and make sure those are a regular part of my days. Likewise, I can also identify daily behaviors and/or actions that, if left to compound, could negatively impact my life. Once identified, I can eliminate or change these behaviors.
That’s the most encouraging part to me: we can make changes! Our lives are the sum of the days we live. If we don’t like the assessment of our lives, we can change how we live each day. While these changes are not always easy, they are ours to make.
Let’s make sure that we’re living our days in a manner consistent with the life we desire.
Occasionally, we face challenges that seem so overwhelming that we can’t see a clear path to the end. In light of a clear path, all we really need to do is take the next step in front of us.
“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” ~Unknown
Have you ever wished that you could see into the future? If so, take a look at your daily habits. They are a strong indicator of what your future
will look like.
Do you habitually complain, look for the negative, and see
the worst in people, or do you rejoice, look for the positive and see the best
in people? One set of behaviors will likely
lead to a future of frustration, disappointment, and anger, while the other set
indicates a future of contentment, peace, and joy.
Give some thought to your daily habits and ponder about the
kind of future they’re leading you toward.
If you want to change your future, change what you do every day.
Here in the Pacific Northwest the Thanksgiving weekend is shaping up to be sunny and cool, with temperatures in the 50s. The skies are a bright blue, and the lingering fall colors are a wonderful display of bright reds, oranges, and yellows. It’s a beautiful scene!
I’m well aware that the gray rainy days that define this part of the country are not far away. With that thought in mind, I want to make sure that I’m not only taking advantage of these sunny days, but also stopping and actually noticing them. It’s far too easy to get tunnel vision and focus only on our routines and daily tasks and miss the beauty that’s happening around us.
Whether it’s a beautiful day or the people around you, take time to slow down and actually notice them as the main even versus simply background displays or noise. There’s much to be noticed and appreciated by those who slow down enough to see it.
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” ~Jesus (John 10:10)
What makes for an abundant life? When we think of abundance, it’s easy to consider only of material things: food, money, leisure activities. While we can certainly have a life with an abundance of these things, I think there other, more important items that make for an abundant life.
As a Jesus-follower, when I think of what makes for an abundant life, I think of non-tangible things like: peace, joy, deep connection with friends and family, and contributing somewhere in a meaningful way, are just a few examples. Even though these non-tangible items of abundance can be myriad, they can also be easily overlooked.
Take some time this Thanksgiving week to ponder the intangible items that bring abundance to your life, and perhaps even choose to invite more of these items into your life. The abundance you seek is likely just a choice away.
I heard someone talking about mindfulness recently, in a way that I hadn’t heard it discussed before. They mentioned that when you’re mindful, you’re able to be curious about how you’re feeling in a situation before you just automatically respond to it.
For example, if a car cuts you off, is your first inclination to lay on the horn, assume the worst about the other driver, or worse? (Yeah, me too!) If, however, we’re being “mindfully curious” we might instead ask something like:
I’ll speak for myself here, but it often seems like I have an autopilot of negative responses that assume the worst in people. These responses manifest themselves in my thoughts, words, and behavior with hardly any effort on my part. They feel almost automatic.
Being a person, whose knee-jerk reaction is to respond negatively, is not who I want to be. As a result, I’m going to work on being more curious of how I feel when I want to react negatively, so that I can gain some perspective and make a better decision. A decision that better aligns with the person I want to be.
For years, my wife and I have been saying that we need to get a will done. It’s one of those things that’s extremely important, not super urgent (that we know of!), and is easy to put off. We finally connected with a professional to help us. One thing I appreciate, is that we have a day on the calendar when we will sign off on the completed document. Now we have a deadline.
While we still have some work to do, having a “complete-by-date” on the calendar is just the motivation (and accountability) we need to ensure that we’ll see this task to completion!
If you’re struggling to complete a task that you know needs to be done, consider creating a real deadline. What would be even better, would be to link that deadline to someone who will hold you accountable.
Sometimes a date on the calendar is all the motivation you need.
We get to choose how we behave. We choose how we conduct ourselves, the words we use, our attitude and our outlook. Ultimately, all these choices we make form us into the people we become and the lives we create.
While it’s easy to say that, “They made me…” or “I just can’t help it”, or any other lame derivative of those statements, remember that we ultimately choose how we behave.
What kind of choices are you making?
Cause Something to Happen 