Get Real With Yourself
I find myself struggling during the past week to be motivated. Sure, I stayed busy, worked on projects, had some downtime to relax, went to my son’s soccer games and practices, but I felt rushed and the pressure of the ever-growing lists of tasks still in need of completion.
Exhausted, but happy dog.
I believe we setup ourselves for failure when we don’t recognize our accomplishments in the present time. I’m guilty of moving from one task to the next, as the day goes on, and never once looking back to see what I have done. I tend to look to the future and base where I’m at now vs where I want to be. Typically, I am let down by what I see. If I decide to look at my daily accomplishments, I will feel a whole lot better than if I purely focus on what is still to be done.
That distinction of being at peace with yourself is significant on a daily basis, but what about years or decades? What will my life look like in a decade? Who knows? The only thing I can do is look back at times when I did dumb things or made bad decisions and see the consequences of those actions. We tend to focus on the negative things when we look back at our past. How about the good things I have done? Do those not deserve a place because I have done 3 times more dumb things? I do not think that is a healthy mindset. I am fortunate that none of my questionable decisions in the past have held me back in my present-day life. The good things I have done have provided grace for most of my stupidity. It sure is a good thing it is not a one-to-one ratio, I would be in the hole.
It’s healthy to look back and pinpoint the major turning points in our lives, the good and bad. We can learn a lot about what worked and what didn’t, how we can improve in the future, and what we may need to quit doing in order to be better.
Starting today, list out some of those positive pivotal moments in your life.
Some of mine include:
Asking my beautiful wife to marry me.
Deciding to give my life to Jesus (I had to do that one several times.)
Deciding to make some positive lifestyle changes.
Investing in myself and my family.
Choosing to not let some traumatic events define the rest of my life.
The good list could go on and on, but my bad list would be much longer. My personal goal is to reverse that number of bad choices. I would like to be net positive on good to bad choices soon.
I challenge you to do the same…..
Proverbs 2:1-22