Skip to main content

Meandering-Mind-Monday? Find focus in a fresh start!

As I peruse an ever-growing list of elusive deliverables and bothersome to-do's for today, my empathetic heart swells for all my friends out there who will hit the snooze button at least twice, opting for a pony-tail and 2-minute face to delay hopping into the shower, then the daily hamster wheel, just a little longer. Do you ever feel like this? (the little critter in the wheel)
Sometimes it seems like we are just tumbling from one task to the next, almost mindlessly, so caught up in the urgency to get things done that we forget to weigh the value of what we are doing.

When I say, "meandering-mind-Monday," I'm talking about the weekly recurring panic that sets in as I see the days dwindling away until an upcoming event, with so much left to do that I start to feel that roller-coaster adrenaline start to surge---you know that feeling you used to get the night before a final exam, when reality hits--you don't know half of this stuff, there is no time to learn it, and the day of reckoning is at hand. GULP. Your mind races from one thing you haven't done to the next, and then you find yourself going to the kitchen and forgetting what you went to get...

It's easy to get overwhelmed, and forget the difference between urgency and importance. If you're the little hamster flopping around in the wheel, I can assure you that you won't find enough presence of mind in there to get your bearings and sort out your priorities. 

Before your day spins out of control, your mind jumping from task to task to task, until your head is spinning, too, hit the breaks for a moment. Ask yourself, is there anything at all I can take off my list today? When you know you are going have a ridiculously harrowing day, don't make it any harder on yourself than you have to. I'm not talking about cutting corners or slacking. I'm talking about being sensible. Skip the high heels in favor of comfy flats.  Reschedule the nail appointment if it makes you too pressed for time. Pick up the dry cleaning tomorrow, when it's more convenient...and no one will take away your Mother of the Year plaque if you opt for soup and sandwiches for dinner. 

A great deal of the time, we create our own stress -- the good news is, in that case, we can eliminate some of it. Give yourself permission to loosen up your schedule so that you have a little room to breathe. Most importantly, make sure you take your own quiet time before you start to tackle that to-do list. Fuel up on devotion time, play some calming music, put on a dab of your best perfume and brightest lipstick, and, instead of hiding from Monday, face it--too fearless and fabulous for failure.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you...let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." -- the words of Jesus,  John 14:27

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When it’s too much...#INSUFFICIENT

It’s Monday again, and —-wait, how did you just react to that? Did your shoulders square up or droop? Did you take a deep, invigorating breath, or expel a sigh? Whatever you’re facing this week, whether it’s the fire-breathing dragon in the corner office, the mean girl in the next cubicle or the inadequacies you see when you look in the mirror, the fact that you’re facing the same ongoing battles over and over doesn’t make them any easier, or the outcome any more certain.  Some days you still feel like the tiny 6th-grader, overloaded with heavy books, forgetting your locker combination, getting bullied out of your lunch money, and overwhelmed by the crowd of boisterous over-achievers. There you are, just trying to get by without being run over, caught up and pulled down in the undertow. Much like the chaos and turbulence of a hallway crowded with middle-schoolers hyped up on sodas and hormones, some of the biggest rivers we have to cross are overwhelming, mind-boggling and equal...
1 comment
Read more

NEMESIS, TRAPS AND DIGRESSIONS, OH MY!

Let's begin at the beginning. You have challenges. You have issues. You have enemies. All of the above would be true for any of us -- from slacker to slave, from victim to hero -- but there is actually one very small but highly distinguishing characteristic: perspective. Yes, the thing that makes mountains out of molehills--and vice versa--is undoubtedly the key to success or failure, and the common thread through the story of every hero. Something interesting about perspective: it can be found, lost, and regained -- although sometimes elusive, it's always attainable.  Through the next week, we will explore the various things responsible for our lost perspective, and talk about how to get it back. I was about to say that there are three things that generally rob us of our proper perspective, but that would imply that it can be taken from us, by force. The fact is, unfortunately, we sometimes "lose" our perspective as easily as we misplace our keys, cell phone, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

SMART Goals: Week Two--Let's Make it Measurable

SMART Goals are Specific, first of all. I hope we have adequately covered that, via the "pick your battles wisely" philosophy. We mulled over priorities, meandered around realities, and meditated on possibilities...all in the spirit of choosing three essential goals for the year. Next, it is absolutely crucial that that we make our goals (outcomes) measurable. Without being measured, there is no definition of success (or failure, but we do not intend to be pessimistic so soon). You must know where this is going. If something is going to be measured, that brings some serious accountability into the equation---scary, huh? I don't know about you, but my blood pressure has a somewhat Pavlovian response that word--in the worst way...It makes you think about horrific things, such as report cards, the President's fitness test, and oh, yes, that dreaded but inevitable moment when the medical assistant in your doctor's office smiles and says, "now if you will just ...
Post a Comment
Read more