We run through life trying to do everything, please everyone, be everywhere. At the end of the day, we fall asleep before we hit the pillow, or we have trouble sleeping. The alarm shrieks early in the morning and we’re off to the races again. And around, around it goes.
Did you ever stop to think about what it’s for? Did you ever stop to think about what’s important to you? Or do you put your head down thinking that someday is going to be different, you just have to get through this first? The thing is, tomorrow isn’t going to be any different unless you do something about it. There’s never a perfect time to make a change, you just have to decide that it’s time.
What are your essentials? What is most important to you? Write them down on a piece of paper. If the whole page gets cluttered you’re in the deep end of the pool without knowing how to swim. There’s no way to sustain all of that. You have to cut down to what is truly essential to you. When you have a handful of things on your list, you’re getting somewhere. Now you’ve probably reached a sustainable number of projects that you can find the time to pursue. The whole idea is that your essentials have to allow for a sustainable life. If not, they are not truly essential to you.
Figuring out what is essential to you enables you to say no to things that are non-essential. You cannot clutter your life with non-essential stuff if you want to pursue what’s important to you. When you’ve reached clarity on your essentials, it makes it easier to decline projects that don’t align with them.
Remember that every time you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to something else.
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash
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