"We need to regularly stop and take stock; to sit down and determine within ourselves which things are worth valuing and which things are not; which risks are worth the cost and which are not.." — Epictetus
This past weekend I drove to Delaware to celebrate a close friend's 40th birthday.
The drive was a bit long (8.5 hours on the way there, 7 on the way back), which left me with a lot of time to think.
Funnily enough, one of the main things I thought about was how much I enjoyed having that time to think.
And how interesting it was that,
Even though I had absolutely no problem with clearing my calendar from Friday-Sunday to be at my friend's party,
It would be highly unlikely for me to create that kind of space in my calendar for me to "just think".
And if you are like most of the high achievers that I work with, then I'm sure you can relate.
You are probably more than happy to be generous with your time and attention when it comes to the people in your life that you love and care about,
But when it comes to yourself, you would never take an entire day off without a "good enough" reason (and wanting to have a few hours to yourself so that you can sit and "just think" definitely wouldn't be good enough).
And I get it.
It's so easy to get sucked into the trap of productivity and to pride yourself for being the woman that can do "all the things",
While completely losing sight of what you really care about and value.
...Unless you STOP for long enough to have an opportunity to take inventory of how you're actually living.
So, here's an invitation to give yourself that opportunity,
And to honestly evaluate where you're at currently AND the direction in which you're moving.
Are you happy with how you're currently spending your most valuable resources of TIME and ATTENTION?
If not,
Do you know how you want to be spending your time and attention?
If you know what you want,
Are you headed in a direction that will give you MORE of that?
If you don't know what you want,
When are you going to give yourself the opportunity to discover the answer to that question?
And if you ARE happy about how you’re spending your time and attention,
Are you STOPPING for long enough to actually appreciate that?
Even though it wasn't my birthday weekend, I feel like I received two gifts.
A reminder of the value of a FULL STOP and,
A reminder to be more intentional about making time for them.
Hopefully, you'll give yourself those gifts as well.
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