Feeling too busy? Find your treasure!
It’s dawned on me recently that I’m beginning to hit middle-age. Life is more complicated than ever before. Sometimes I long for simpler days when I had less juggling of schedules to do, fewer responsibilities and far fewer bills to pay!
Nowadays sitting down to write a to-do list can be quite an overwhelming experience. As we hurtle towards Christmas, the schedule gets more and more crowded. What can we do to reduce our stress? Something that helps me most is to ask myself regularly, ‘What is the priority, today?’ This helps us focus on what’s most important, and the rest can just wait or not happen.
But how do we know what takes priority? Our priorities tend to be driven by what we value most. Our personal values guide us like a compass in a world of ever-expanding choices. But if we don’t have a strong sense of what we value, we can find we are drifting along without a sense of purpose (and ever accumulating tasks). But when we know and live in line with our values – when we ‘walk the talk’, so to speak – we find we are really living our best life (without even having to post about it on Instagram).
In the Bible, Jesus described our values as ‘treasures’. He said we can treasure up things that won’t last, or things that will last forever (see the book of Matthew, chapter 6 verses 19-21). In other words, what we choose to make a priority can either be meaningful, or meaningless.
Our lives are therefore more meaningful and purposeful when we carefully consider not so much our ‘to do’ list, but our ‘to be’ list. So instead of stressing over the tasks at hand, why not take a moment to list what personal qualities you want to have in your life, what you want to put value on (your ‘treasures’). This might be things like ‘generosity’, ‘kindness’, ‘seeing the best in others’, or ‘joy,’ or a myriad of other values (you can find plenty of lists on the internet). Then, check your to do list, and see if your plans truly align with your values. You might find you can drop off a couple of things (phew!).
Photo by Helena Lopes, Pexels
