Making Room

When something new comes into your life, it stands there, luggage in hand, waiting for you to tell it where it is going to live.  New things, ideas, opportunities or people, need space in our lives to grow and flourish.  If we don’t welcome these new things and tell them where to go, they may stand there in the entry way for a while.  But more likely, this new thing will turn around and walk out the door.

How can we make room for something new when we have so much going on already?  You might think “I work.  I have a family.  I have responsibilities.  I have so much going on I can’t possibly find room for something new.”  Looking at your life from this perspective, it might seem true.   

I get it. I am busy.  I work several part time jobs.  I’m a mom.  I am a wife.  I run this house.  I volunteer.  How can I possibly fit something more into my life?  I can’t.  The time, space, and frankly the effort that something new involves might be too much.

Let me tell you something important.  This.  Is.  A.  Lie.  

Did you get that?  I’ll repeat it for you.  

Being too busy is a lie.

Yes, we are busy but we are not too busy for something important.

Don’t just look at busy, look at what you are giving up, a new friend, a new hobby, an exercise class, travel, a new idea that could flourish into a new business or career, something that will make your life richer and more fulfilling.  How could you give that up?  Can you really afford to let that pass by?

If you look inside, most likely the answer is you can’t, it’s too important.

That’s right.  If it is important to you, you find the time.  You throw the doors open and make the room.

In looking at my day, I do a ton of stuff.  But I also waste a bunch of time.  I reach for my phone first thing in the morning, in line at the store, really whenever I have a spare minute.  And then I scroll and scroll and scroll some more.  And I can waste time by watching reruns of shows I have seen multiple times before.  Did you know that Lifetime reruns Greys Anatomy from the beginning to the end and then starts all over?  I do because I have seen them all.

During any of that time spent online or in front of the TV, I could have pulled out my computer or even a notebook.  I could have written.  I thought about writing.  I thought about it a lot.  I could have written at any time but I didn’t.

But lucky for me, this blog was sitting in my entryway on its luggage tapping its fingers, bored.  Maybe it was thinking about getting up and walking out but it hadn’t done it yet.  So I opened up my computer and I wrote.  One time writing is great but I can continue to make room for it in my life.

The first thing I did was disable Facebook notifications on my phone so I didn’t run there the second I saw a notification.  It would all be there when I was ready.  Then I moved it to its own page past all the apps I use daily.  And today I took the ultimate step, deleting it from my phone altogether.

Does this mean that all the free time will now be spent interviewing, writing and editing?  No, of course not.  But this change will allow me to be more present in my life and to be more aware of how I am using my time.  I have the room.  I have the time.  Now I need to use it wisely.   

Writing, please come in and join me.  I look forward to our adventures together.