My OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) tends to force me into one thing at a time, in a row, alphabetical and color coordinated like the rainbow (read: perfectionism). Red comes before orange, planning before doing (sometimes so much planning that there’s no time left for doing). Same goes for my New Year resolutions. I always start out early or at least relatively close to the first if not on it… and I’ve got a word lined up, a catch phrase, maybe… even a Bible verse. I’ve even been known to come up with lists of over 100 things I want to accomplish in a year.
Many years of doing things this way and seeing the wind knocked out of me – the feeling of defeat I’ve gotten from things not accomplished – made me rethink 2014. I also have to say that I started feeling apprehensive back before Christmas about making out a quick list of resolutions before praying through them.
Something about this year was different. I felt God asking me to be STILL and listen… but for what? I wasn’t sure.
I asked him for a word. A message. A motto. A verse. Wisdom. Direction.
I waited. I did the other stuff that needed to be done while listening as best I could for His whisper.
As I was packing up the Christmas tree, purging the closets, organizing the book shelves… I noticed a book that a friend had given me a few years ago: “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy. It practically jumped in to my hand.
I fanned to a page near the front:
“An average person who develops the habit of setting clear priorities and getting important tasks completed quickly will run circles around a genius who talks a lot and makes wonderful plans, but gets very little done.”
A word stood out to me that wasn’t even on the page: EFFECTIVE. I want to be effective. I mean, what’s a person who devotes their life to a cause but isn’t effective? NOTHING. I don’t want to be a failure. No one does.
A little voice inside me said, “YES!”
I read that paragraph and knew it was for me. I knew my year wasn’t going to be about something specific, it was just going to be me pressing on; praying about my priorities and then following through to get the most important things accomplished.
There’s no way you can do it all, true; but everyone gets enough time each day to do the important things. I want to be about singling those things out and claiming success and victory over them. I want to do the things I’m CALLED to do WELL.
While “Eating My Frog” is the METHOD that I’m embracing this year (already seeing huge results, by the way), I still plan to reach for important goals along the way…
I want to live healthier (that requires changing how we eat, sleep, and exercise).
I want to continue digging out of debt (with fervor).
I want to continue planning and organizing for our home and homeschool each week to graduate this school year and begin next year.
I want to help my eldest son get his driver’s license and help my daughter build her Etsy store.
We have a LOT of goals. I’m sure you do, too. The point for me is to not worry about what tomorrow might bring… but to DO the important things today – to ORGANIZE, PLAN and ACCOMPLISH. To hug, kiss, LISTEN, and bond. Like the book’s title says, I want to “Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time”… more of what’s important to GOD and ME.
I don’t want to survive, I want to thrive. I don’t want to just get by, I want to succeed. I want to RUN the RACE to get the prize.
Here are a few verses (to encourage me on my quest – and to encourage YOU):
Psalm 90:12 ~ So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Ephesians 5:15 ~ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise
Proverbs 16:3 ~ Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
Psalm 39:4-5 ~ Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.
James 4:13-17 ~ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
Psalm 90:10 ~ The length of our days is seventy years-or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Psalm 33:11 ~ But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Hebrews 6:11-12 ~ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
Proverbs 21:5 ~ The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
Colossians 4:5 ~ Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
Isaiah 40:31 ~ but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
1 Corinthians 9:24 ~ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
This is my year to run – my year to fly – and as long as I’m lining up my priorities with His, I’m sure there’s a prize waiting.
{ May you WIN your race in 2014. Don’t give up or give in. You can do anything through Him! }
In His Grip,
[…] do it all, true; but everyone gets enough time each day to do the important things.” ~ Me, back in January of 2014 during a moment of […]