My cup is full (and not of the good stuff!)

The pace…our busy lives…it can be exhausting just trying to keep up!

We go from one thing to the next.

As parents we rush to get the kids out of the door, dash to work, hustle to meet deadlines. We barely take a minute to grab a bite for lunch and then we are back at it again in the mad dash to 5 p.m. when we race out the door, bristle at the traffic, reach home to our “second job” as parent.

We help with homework, sign permission slips, help find the lost homework or sports equipment, manage the bedtime routine, and drop into bed ourselves so we can do it all over again tomorrow.

As teens we drag ourselves out of bed at an early hour (an hour that is not supported by research as conducive to learning). We grab something for breakfast, rush through that last minute math homework, and head off to school.

At school we put on a front of confidence and do our best to get through the day without making a fool out of ourselves. Then back home to slog through homework, eat dinner, check out Instagram, and drop into bed to do it all over again tomorrow.

Even those of us without kids find ourselves in the mad dash through the days, trying to fit more in, accommodate more people, meet more expectations, cover one more thing. We may be frustrated that we don’t have the “excuse” of kids to go home to and resent taking on yet another task.

Our society, the technology and pace, increases at a tremendous rate.

What happened?

When did I get so darn busy?

I thought once I was a grown up I could do what I wanted!

What happened?

My cup overflows, and not with the good stuff.

What can I do?

Congratulations.

That question represents the first step in doing something DIFFERENT!

“What can I do?” is a question that can only be asked if you have stopped for long enough to realize the current pace is unsustainable.

It’s unhealthy.

It’s a mad dash to what?

The end of the day? The end of the week? The end of the school year? The end of your career?

What are you in a hurry to reach?

What can you do?

My cup is overflowing with….gunk.

What happened to the good stuff?

The good stuff—just what is that anyway?

Stop.

Take a breath.

Take another.

And then take a few minutes to think about and answer these questions:

What am I doing all of this for?

Who am I doing all of this for?

Seriously, stop.

Breathe.

Answer those questions.

The busyness in our lives is a means to an end...not the end itself.

Sometimes we forget that.

We need a paycheck so that we can pay our bills.

We need to attend school (if we are students) in order to create a future for ourselves where we can support ourselves and perhaps our family.

We need to do the laundry, shop for groceries, repair the car, clean the house so that we can maintain our basic living needs.

But these things are not the WHY we are doing what we do…

These things are not the WHY we are working so hard.

Sometimes we lose sight of that.

The WHY behind the busyness needs to be brought once again front and center.

The WHY is our purpose.

Bringing our purpose once again to the forefront can help us to begin the task of dumping some of the overflow out of our over-capacity cup.

Recognizing once again what is truly important to us allows us the perspective we need to prioritize.

We’ve all heard it. Every day we have 24 hours. That’s 86,400 seconds. No more, no less.

We don’t get them back.

Our time is a precious resource and we can only spend it wisely if we pay attention to how we are choosing to spend it.

If we don’t stop and prioritize, we are being sloppy with our spending and we may not even realize it.

We may feel stressed and bored and waste time surfing the web--not because we are searching for something--but because we are distracting ourselves and trying to avoid the pain and frustration of our rushed lives.

What fills your cup right now?

Is it gunk?

Is it busyness without purpose?

What would you rather fill your cup with?

Time spent with family or friends?

Time for a walk? Time for an exercise class? Time for meditation?

Time for finishing a puzzle or reading a book?

Carve out time for those things with intention.

Make time for those things first.

Then, you can fill up the space left in your cup with the more necessary busyness.

But get the important things into your cup--into your schedule--first.

If you don’t, there won’t be room.