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Scrap Your Priorities
Dear
Girlfriends,
The success
and prosperity we enjoy in this great country has come at the expense of
millions of men and women who, over the past two hundred and thirty-one years,
refused to give up. We're a tribe of dogmatic individuals who strive 24x7 to
have it all. We are not sissies. But as a society we haven't a clue how to live
intentionally, because we don't know when to throw in the towel.
The phrase
comes from the sport of boxing. When the fighter is just too exhausted to
continue, and when his coach realizes he can't succeed, the coach throws a
towel into the ring to indicate that the fight is over. I love the imagery here
- the boxer, too close to his own struggle, doesn't make the call - but his coach,
who sees the situation objectively, makes the decision for him. The priority to win is scrapped in order to
fulfill the priority to live. I think to live intentionally we have to know
when to throw in the towel - when to scrap some of our priorities - and rarely
can we make this call on our own.
The most
popular series I have written to date was the series titled Spread Too Thin. The response from
women, coast to coast, in all stages of life was overwhelming. But the single
most-oft repeated message was, "My husband has been telling me this for years."
Why? As your coach, he can see when you've put yourself in a position where you
can't possibly succeed at living; he knows you're only existing. Can you have
it all? Of course you can! Just not every
day. And not in every life stage.
If you're
reading this message and you know in your heart that you're not living intentionally,
then there's an excellent chance that your priorities are out of whack. Assess
your situation to determine what self-imposed duties are robbing you of joy.
Then, develop the vision and a plan to get to the place where you're
experiencing life, not just moving from task to task. It's a destination worth
planning for, and since you won't listen to your significant other - maybe you'll
take a tip from your girlfriend (me).
To follow
are just a few of the priorities I scrapped during my life-stage when I was raising
children, building a career, and dealing with a two-hour daily commute:
- Exercise. I gained 15 pounds as I climbed the corporate ladder.
I sacrificed a firm fanny for a firm foundation for my career.
- Dinner. To complement my healthy lifestyle of no exercise, we
picked up fast food, two nights a week. Not an organic vegetable on the
table, but we enjoyed our meals together at the kitchen table every night.
Spinach was sacrificed for quality time with the fam.
- Laundry. I bought pink towels for Shauna and blue towels for
Scott and taught them both to do their own laundry at the ages of 11 and
14. If they didn't wash it - they wore it dirty. Saturday became a fun day,
not a work day - and no one turned me in to Child Protective Services.
- Bible study. I traded my daily Bible study for Christian CDs and books
on tape during my long commute, to gain 30 precious minutes of sleep. I'm
pretty sure Jesus still loved me.
- Continued self-development. My continued learning
consisted of helping with science projects, slogging through eighth-grade Algebra
and keeping up with the teen lingo. Self-development was sacrificed for self-preservation.
The key is not to
prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen R. Covey
You're in
the ring, sweat dripping from your brow. You feel the blow. Are you down for
the count? It might be time to throw in the towel.
Scrapping
my priorities for better ones,
Ellen
Posted by Ellen on October 24, 2007 10:50 AM
| Category: Living Intentionally
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