Follow Your Intuition! Avoid Over-commitment
Avoid Overcommitment & Live Simpler
We have talked about re-ordering priorities, and now it’s time to tackle the next phase of restructuring your life to be simpler by following your intuition.
After deciding on which priorities are most important to you and your family and re-evaluating your commitments for this year, it is time to follow your intuition.
Follow Your Intuition
If you want a quick way to decide whether you are cut out for a particular project or whether your children should participate in a certain sport, pay attention to how you feel when it is time to make a decision.
It is important to consider what types of causes (i.e., breast cancer support, Christian charities, a world need such as clean water, church mission projects, hands-on labor projects like Habitat for Humanity) you may want to become involved in, and which of them really hits your “passion button” and your family’s “passion button”.
Energy boosters and Energy Sucks
All of these are great causes, but if you become involved in one and it is not your passion, then all you are doing is just participating because it is a good charity. If it does not energize you, but it sucks the energy from you then maybe this is not an activity you should become involved with. My advice is not to participate in things that are “energy sucks”.
On the flip side, maybe this cause or activity hits your “passion button”, and you just can’t imagine not helping. By becoming involved, you are energized and feel you are making a difference. This is an “energy booster”. By all means, if you want to participate, then do so!
When someone has asked you to join in their cause, are you feeling a twinge of excitement or slight panic? If you have that feeling of excitement; if this hits your “passion button”, then by all means, explore becoming involved.
On the other hand, if you have that feeling of panic or your gut instinct is to turn around and run in opposite direction then perhaps this opportunity is not for you.
When looking at activities to involve your kids in, do you enroll them because it is what you want them to participate in or because it is what their passion is / talent lay?
Helping Children Develop Passion
As parents, it is a fine line not to project our “wants / desires” on our children as it relates to their talents.
A good example is a parent who is very musically talented and has a passion for music that insists that the child takes piano lessons. But unfortunately, the child does not like music, he loves baseball. So he reluctantly goes to piano lessons every week, and he becomes resentful of the lessons and music in general. This is an energy suck for him.
Knowing that he is passionate about and loves baseball, you sign him up for the baseball league. He goes to every single practice – as a matter of fact, you don’t have to ask him to get ready – he comes downstairs dressed and ready to go – EARLY! This is an energy booster for him.
Key into your child’s passion and talent and nurture that. You never know, he could be the next Itzhak Perlman or the next Michael Jordan!
Going with your intuition can serve you well, and keep you from taking on projects that are going to eventually become a constant source of stress to you (i.e., an “energy suck”) or a source of joy and fulfillment (i.e., an “energy booster”) to you.
