I’ve been asked a lot about how I’m able to do so much all the time. Recently, I’ve been asking myself that same thing. I’ve also been purging things in my life that do not bring me joy. I used to do a lot of things and resented most of it. Now, I only do things that make my heart sing.
You know how one of the biggest excuses is “I just don’t have the time”? Time is not the enemy. If something is given a priority, we will always find the time.
If you are doing a bunch of things that do not make your heart sing, then it’s time to reevaluate your priorities in order to find the capacity in your everyday life for the things you truly want to do.
Don’t get me wrong, there are things we have to do, necessities, life’s duties that there is no escaping from. We may not enjoy the work we do that pays us money but working for an income is a necessity. However, if you do not enjoy where you work; if you do not enjoy your job enough to see the benefits it provides as something good in your life, then it is probably time to look to doing something else.
I know a lot of folks who work in the wastewater industry. It is quite literally a shitty job at times. And yet, they love where they work most of the time. They love their job most of the time. Why? Because of the agency they work at. The tasks worked at a job are only a small part of the job itself. The organization or agency one works for, the people who one works with, and the overall work culture is the rest. You can have a dirty job, and not enjoy the actual task, but enjoy work.
This goes for the rest of the variety of things that fight for your time in your life. These other aspects of life often have more flexibility. Where and how we volunteer our time is up to us, and it is here that we need to embody Marie Kondo, take each area of our life and contemplate – does this bring me joy? Does this make my heart sing? When we are asked to volunteer or to take on something new, we need to ask ourselves – will I resent this, or will this bring me joy? Perhaps the task itself is mundane, boring, and has the potential to be something we could resent, but the organization is one we very much admire and promote and the people who will be volunteering with you are awesome and fun. That task, while having the possibility of being horrible, has just as equal, if not more, of a possibility of being lifegiving and abundantly joyful.
Each time we find ourselves with a task in front of us, one that we have the opportunity to say Yes or NO to, we need to give ourselves time; time to think, time to accept our understanding of the task, time to say yes or no. I’ve come to a point where I do not say yes or no right away, unless I have already anticipated the ask and have already had time to contemplate.
There are times where I find I have not given myself this opportunity – to think and to understand the task in front of me. Nine times out of ten, I would say I almost always immediately regret saying yes.
As we move out of COVID restrictions, the usual asks are all in front of us again. I’ve found it so easy to suddenly be in a spiraling vortex with my to-do list overflowing with this or that. How easy it was to suddenly forget to consider those areas in my life that lift me up and make my heart sing. Luckily, it’s never too late. There is always time for re-evaluation. There is always time to consider where you spend your energy. There is always time to say NO and there is time to really seek out those areas you want, crave to say YES.
What makes your heart sing? Are you doing that today?