Under Book and Over Look

Lately I’ve been exploring meditation in an attempt to quiet my ever racing mind.  I’ve also heard that prayer is you talking to God and meditation is you sitting back quietly to listen for His response.  So now, instead of rambling on my long prayers and going about my day immediately after, I’ve tacked on some meditation time at the end of each prayer to listen to what God has to say back to me.

One day last week I set aside some very intentional quiet time to really get deep into the prayer and meditation.  In so many words, the response that I got during my meditation was, “You’re doing too much.”  This made so much sense because I’ve come to realize that I tend to over book myself.  This doesn’t mean that I’m scheduling things at the same time, but I’m not really giving myself time to thoroughly breath, reflect, and rest in between appointments and engagements.

I’ve come to learn that just because a block of time is not filled on your calendar or in your day planner, it doesn’t mean that it’s really available.  I’ve had days where I schedule appointments, book signings, meetings and calls back to back to back just because the space is free on my calendar. What I don’t account for is transitions, down time, travel time and the fact that I am not a robot and that I might just get tired somewhere along the way like humans often do.

When I was given the message that I was doing too much, an example was also revealed to me.  Now that my business travel is beginning to slow up a bit, I’d decided that I was going to commit to thirty days of focus to tie up a lot of loose ends in my life.  God was like, “Why does it have to be thirty days? Why can’t you just start by committing to like two days and see how it goes?” Again, this made so much sense for me because I definitely have a tendency to make grand plans, then I find myself either overwhelmed by them or disappointed with myself because I’ve abandoned them.

Another area where I tend to “do too much” is within my thoughts. I have formed a nasty little habit of sweating the small stuff, instead of focusing on the big picture.  Sometimes we all stress ourselves out by thinking about, paying attention to and entertaining some of the most trivial things.  Let’s use a dating situation as a common example of this…

 A man and a woman are dating.  The woman spends a lot of time and energy paying attention to all of the other young ladies that are attracted to or interested in her man.  She overlooks the fact that she gets all of his time, attention and affection, and focuses on all of these women that are making comments on his Facebook page or following him on Twitter.  Instead of focusing on the positive big picture, she is zeroed in on the insignificant small picture.  My advice to here would be,” If you are the quarterback, why in the world are you worried about who’s on the bench?”

Do you see where I’m going with this?

This week I challenge you to UNDER Book yourself for a change and OVER Look the small stuff that doesn’t even matter in the larger scheme of things. As your personal guinea pig for positive change I can assure you that your life will begin to improve instantly.

Get Out of Your Own Way

Take a moment to envision where you want to be in life.  Where do you want to live?  What do you want to look like? How do you want to feel emotionally?  What kind of car do you want to drive? How much money do you want to make?  What do you want the state of your business to be? What do you want for your family?

Now, think about the thing or things that are holding you back from where we want to be.  If we are completely honest with ourselves we will admit that our largest obstacle is often the person that we look at in the mirror every day.

There are several ways that we get in our own way.  The most obvious is not believing in our own abilities thus allowing fear, doubt, negative self-talk and procrastination dictate our futures.  If we do that, we know it…but I want to call out some of the other hidden and sometimes subconscious things that we do to sabotage ourselves.

1.    Burning the Candle at Both Ends and In the Middle!

When you have a vision or a goal that you’ve set for yourself, it’s a natural tendency for those that are driven to want to grind and give it all we’ve got.  The problem is that sometimes we go so far as to give it what we don’t have as well. 

I remember the first and only time that I ever ran out of gas in my car.  I was ripping and running all day, and I actually had the money.  I was just so busy pushing my agenda to the limit that I never set aside the few moments that it would take to refuel.  So as a result, there I was, in the middle of the freeway, at midnight, out of gas.  So now, not only was I held back, I was brought to a screeching halt.  I went from doing too much to not being able to do anything at all.

There are two things to keep in mind if this sounds like you.  First of all, you won’t be good to anyone or anything if you are burnt out mentally, physically and emotionally.  That purpose or calling that has been placed on your life will be placed on hold and you will be placed on a stretcher or a hospital bed.  And finally….challenge God and allow him the opportunity to show you all that He can do for you.   Trust that He’s right there next to you on the battle field of life.  Faith takes work, but even God rested.

2.    Spending Time Talking About What You Can’t Do and Doing What You Don’t Want to Do.

I went to see author, ReShonda Tate Billingsley speak the other day, and one of the many things that she said that stood out to me was, “Every minute spent talking about what you can’t do is a minute that could be spent doing it.” This rings so true! We spend SO much time talking about what we can’t do and why we can’t do it.  Those minutes, hours, days and weeks could be spent taking action on the plan that is burning inside of us. 

On the same note, we often spend just as much time doing things that we know we don’t want to do.  Perhaps it’s that job that you hate and you know that deep down in your heart, if you step out on faith and leave it, God will have something even greater waiting for you.  Maybe it’s all of those things that you do to help others reach their goals and realize their dreams…which is great…but what about you?

Start thinking of your moments as money in a bank account that will disappear if you don’t spend it or invest it. Think of every hour as one million dollars.  You get the same amount each day, Twenty-four million dollars, and how you use it is up to you.   Will you use it wisely?  Will you waste it?  Or will you go too hard with it and fall into burning that candle at both ends and in the middle?

There are several other factors that contribute to you getting in your own way of that future that you want including the company that you keep, your willingness to give, how you manage what you are given and so on.  I just wanted to give you the two above to ponder and digest.  If they hit home for you take a step or two TODAY to make shift in a different direction.  Take a path that is clear of obstacles.  Get out of your own way!