Saturday, May 31, 2008

Hanging onto your heart in the midst of life

Lately, I’ve been spending far too much of my days engaged in activities I don’t enjoy. Which means I am typically way too busy (seriously infringing on my value of simplicity) and my heart tends to get buried. I end up working on autopilot, my sense of passion and purpose get put on the back burner, and my head takes over when it does come to making decisions or taking action on something.

On one hand, I recognize this is a necessary season in our lives right now, and I believe someday it really will be worth the momentary pain when it pays off towards our long-term dreams. But I also recognize I am walking a very fine line of creating an environment that is dangerous to the very essence of who I am. Actually, to be really honest, I think I already crossed that line a while back.

I believe operating from that place of the heart--that place of passion and purpose--is vital to what it is to be human, and there is no question it is critical to my own well-being.

Recognizing how absolutely essential this “heart” piece is, I have to ask myself how I can hang onto my heart in the midst of life. Life that sometimes demands putting dreams on hold or being in “necessary evils” for a season. And--in light of my last post about hanging on to simplicity--how I can do this without adding more overwhelm to an already busy schedule. (Easy task, right???)

For me, it means carving out and jealously guarding time when I can slow down (simplicity) and reconnect with my sense of passion and purpose (heart). It means ignoring goals and deadlines and self-imposed expectations for the time being, and only taking action on something when I can do so with enthusiasm and full of “heart”. That’s certainly what I would coach a client to do. Now if I can just take my own advice...

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