Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.
Mornings have always been one of my favorite times of day. It probably stems from when I was a bakery manager many moons ago. My drive into work was along side a river on a wavy road at 3:30 in the morning. The world was still asleep and there was true peace and time for thought. At that time in my life I would take those moments to marvel at God's great work, and thank him for my blessings. I found that if you start your day out with quiet reflection and gratitude, that it gave the day the best chance it had at succeeding.
I was in my 20's back then and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the world. I'm pretty convinced that was the sweet spot, and I'll probably tell my kids that some day. In your 20's you have complete freedom, no responsibility, and for the most part everyone in your family is at an age where they are not at risk of any medical emergencies. If you're lucky, your folks are reasonably healthy or haven't seen the repercussions of their unhealthy behavior yet. You most likely have not experienced significant loss. Your bills are low, your fun is high, and you can literally change your course by however the wind may take you. You're meeting your potential spouse, you're meeting your potential career. Life is good and hopeful!
Then time goes on, stress creeps in, and your work life balance is not exactly balanced anymore. You put more work into your job than spending time with people you love, "because you're driven and have big goals". You stop taking the mornings to look around outside and thank God for his great creation and trade it for waiting in line at the Starbucks drive through, and listening to depressing news on the radio. I look around me at work and see people I care about sucked into that very vortex. They start their day tired, over caffeinate themselves, dive right in to all the problems they see, and don't have enough energy to look for solutions to those problems. They over promise and under deliver. They overspend and consequently feel underpaid. Rinse and repeat, all the way through your thirties.
I think the larger tragedy is, in most cases you have to have something traumatic happen in your life to shake the crud out of you and wake yourself up from the robot life that you have created. And the kicker is, when you are in that mode of work, stress, spend, treat your body like crap, you don't even realize there's anything wrong with it. And poof, you've lost 10-20 years of your life. You may have lost the best years of your children's lives too. The years where they adore you and just want to spend time sitting on your lap telling you stories about dragons and a brave hero (insert your child's name).
I would venture to say that for most of us, we lose alot of those special moments because what we think is important, really isn't. Maybe my husband and I should be thankful life kicked us in the boy parts twice. It has awaken us to what really matters. We have removed things that bring us down, like the news, and focus on all the things that bring us joy. We are present for our kids, we treat our bodies well so that we'll be around for a long time, we only promise what we can deliver, we focus on being creative, and we never overspend. All those things have given us a life with less stress, more joy, and happy kids.
I spend my morning drive into work marveling at God's great work, and thanking him for all of my blessing. Thanks Mom and Dad, for shaking me awake.
I was in my 20's back then and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the world. I'm pretty convinced that was the sweet spot, and I'll probably tell my kids that some day. In your 20's you have complete freedom, no responsibility, and for the most part everyone in your family is at an age where they are not at risk of any medical emergencies. If you're lucky, your folks are reasonably healthy or haven't seen the repercussions of their unhealthy behavior yet. You most likely have not experienced significant loss. Your bills are low, your fun is high, and you can literally change your course by however the wind may take you. You're meeting your potential spouse, you're meeting your potential career. Life is good and hopeful!
Then time goes on, stress creeps in, and your work life balance is not exactly balanced anymore. You put more work into your job than spending time with people you love, "because you're driven and have big goals". You stop taking the mornings to look around outside and thank God for his great creation and trade it for waiting in line at the Starbucks drive through, and listening to depressing news on the radio. I look around me at work and see people I care about sucked into that very vortex. They start their day tired, over caffeinate themselves, dive right in to all the problems they see, and don't have enough energy to look for solutions to those problems. They over promise and under deliver. They overspend and consequently feel underpaid. Rinse and repeat, all the way through your thirties.
I think the larger tragedy is, in most cases you have to have something traumatic happen in your life to shake the crud out of you and wake yourself up from the robot life that you have created. And the kicker is, when you are in that mode of work, stress, spend, treat your body like crap, you don't even realize there's anything wrong with it. And poof, you've lost 10-20 years of your life. You may have lost the best years of your children's lives too. The years where they adore you and just want to spend time sitting on your lap telling you stories about dragons and a brave hero (insert your child's name).
I would venture to say that for most of us, we lose alot of those special moments because what we think is important, really isn't. Maybe my husband and I should be thankful life kicked us in the boy parts twice. It has awaken us to what really matters. We have removed things that bring us down, like the news, and focus on all the things that bring us joy. We are present for our kids, we treat our bodies well so that we'll be around for a long time, we only promise what we can deliver, we focus on being creative, and we never overspend. All those things have given us a life with less stress, more joy, and happy kids.
I spend my morning drive into work marveling at God's great work, and thanking him for all of my blessing. Thanks Mom and Dad, for shaking me awake.
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