Distraction Detours

READY… "By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.” ~ Christopher Columbus

AIM… Have you been distracted from the focus of your life plans or projects? If you don’t think you’ve been distracted, you’re not being honest with yourself. Every day we are faced with multiple opportunities to choose to stay focused on our tasks or to stray from our target. Cell phones, email, Facebook, the internet, video games, food, television, other people – they are ALL distractions we encounter daily. So how can we refocus and detour ourselves from all the distractions?

We need to get honest. Try to determine how much time you are spending checking your email, surfing the web, or creeping on Facebook each day. Look at the minutes you spend vegging in front of the tv or playing apps and games. Once you get an idea of how much time you are truly spending doing things that don’t contribute to the success of your plans, then you are ready for the next step. Plain and simple: Set limits for yourself. We set limits and boundaries for our children, thus we adults need to establish healthy limits for ourselves as well. Choose two times a day when you check your email account. Decide to surf the web or catch up on Facebook statuses once a day. Pick your most favorite television shows and only veg out when you have time to watch just those shows. Will setting limits for yourself be easy? Probably not. Will it help you reclaim your lost time and allow you to have free time to spend making strides toward reaching your goals? You bet. No pain, no gain, right? Let’s do it!

FIRE!   Take a baby step this week in eliminating one distraction from your daily routine. If you cannot eliminate it completely, set a limit for yourself and stick to your limit. You’ll discover a new found freedom and wonder why you didn’t make that change sooner.

Be Excellent!
Lori

Wandering In The Wilderness

READY…  “Patience is waiting.  Not passively waiting.  That is laziness.  But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience.”  ~ Anonymous

AIM…  Ok, so I’m in a season of life where I’m just waiting for the next big thing to happen.  I feel like I’m listening to God’s promptings and being obedient by doing what I feel I’m being called to do.  However, it doesn’t seem like there’s really anything happening. Even the little things going on don’t seem to be coming together for a means to an end.  It’s hard to be patient when you feel like you’ve been waiting and wandering in the wilderness without even a bread crumb trail to lead you into the promised land.  Truth be told, there are days I probably wouldn’t even recognize a bread crumb trail if the entire loaf of bread was waved in front of my face!

Despite my personal frustration, I know many of you have been in a similar place in life at some point where waiting and being patient is difficult at best.  We’re all such a bunch of control freaks that it’s hard to let go of our lives long enough to let God lead us in the direction in which He wants us to go.  However, when we do finally feel like we’ve let go, we expect Him to lead us directly to the end of the path for the answers we’ve been waiting to see or hear.  I know you’ve heard this expression before: “Getting there is half the fun.”  Sometimes I don’t know if I totally agree with that phrase, but I do agree we need to step outside of ourselves long enough to realize that there is much more going on behind the scenes of our lives than we can even fathom.  So for now, I’ll simply work on my patience and try to find the joy along this journey called life.  Won’t you join me?

FIRE!  Romans 8:24-25 says “If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.”  Make a list of the things you are impatient about today.  Then pray for the strength to patiently await the results you are hoping to receive. 

Be Excellent!

Lori