It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)
Greetings to you!
Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.
Russ...
LEADERSHIP QUOTE:
"When you say yes to others, make sure you are not saying no to yourself." Paulo Coelho
What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.
A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:
We'll close this month of quotes with one final word from Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian novelist who simply reminds us to pay attention to ourselves and not sacrifice things that might be important to us for the sake of others.... all the time!
I know people who live selflessly. They constantly give and give, and sometimes I see the weariness in their soul from saying YES all the time.
A memory just came flooding back into my mind....
I grew up in Southern California, and when I was between the ages of 6 and 11, we lived in a home with a pool. I spent most of my summers in that pool, as did all of my friends from the neighborhood.
I remember one time, after spending a long weekend in the pool, it was Sunday afternoon, at about 5:00pm, and we were supposed to be going to church.
We always went to church.... Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening, and Wednesday Nights. We had a great church and community, and it was only a 5 minute drive from our home.
I remember when my father gave us the 15 minute warning, telling us that we needed to be out of the pool in order to get ready for church, but we were having a great time. Friends were still over, we were playing some game, it was a perfect Sunday Evening in California, and I asked the unthinkable.... "Dad, can we skip church and just play in the pool?"
I'm not sure how I got the courage to ask that question, but I can remember my dad going back inside the house, then a few minutes coming back out and saying, "We're staying home tonight!".
I remember the feeling, the excitement, the thrill of getting to play for a couple more hours. I'm sure egg sandwiches followed with a popsicle on the patio, but that feeling is a great memory.
I'm not sure if it actually happened the way I remember it. Maybe my dad was the one who wanted to ditch church, but it didn't matter. That night, instead of sitting in a pew for church, we played on
Think of a time that you said NO to something else in order to say YES to yourself? What feelings come along with that?
DEEPER STILL:
We constantly say YES to things that can put us in an unhealthy situation.
Here are a couple of things to do that can help you avoid the unhealthy side of saying YES to everything:
#1) SCHEDULE AND PLAN
Make sure that the most important things, both personally and professionally, make it on your calendar. Don't be surprised by something. Work hard to get birthdays, celebrations, anniversaries, milestones... get those things down and protect them!
#2) PAUSE BEFORE YOU SAY YES
Instead of a quick YES, just take a moment, an hour, a day, before committing. See how you feel, check in with others, just pause first.
#3) ASK GOD FOR DIRECTION
When you pause, part of that might be simply asking God for peace or direction. What is He prompting you to do? What is He asking you to do?
#4) DEFINE HEALTH FOR YOURSELF
Define what being in a healthy state looks like for you... time off, sabbath, travel, alone time, family time, hobbies, friendships... define what is important to you and make sure that is planned and scheduled.
This past week, I took a "guilt free day" and it was wonderful. I had time to read, time to walk, time with family, church, a couple of great meals, a short nap, and I had some time swimming in the pool. It's just what I needed after a long week, yet I spent part of the day thinking about all of the things I should be doing, and the other part of the day celebrating the fact that I said no to everything else, and took care of myself! It was a good day.
What's the hardest thing for you about your YES and your NO? What would help you discern better and make better decisions?
Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:
Spent time over the past 2 weeks in Comer's book, Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. I missed some things on the first way through and enjoyed going through is more slowly.
I finished my second round through The Art of Gathering by Prya Parker. There's some really good stuff in this book and in the Audible version.
Gina and I got pulled into the new ALONE Series, based in South Africa in the Great Karoo Desert!
I spent part of my weekend learning more about Drip Irrigation. What a great way to get water where you most need it!
My grandson loves a good trash truck. This is one of his favorites, but even better than that is following a real trash truck through the neighborhood! Good Times with Perrin!