Essential Summer Living: Deciding What NOT to do This Summer

It’s here! Summer!!! Honestly, I do not know who is more excited, me or the kids. I have said that many times in jest; however, I am realizing it is, in fact, very true.

This has caused me to pause and ask myself, “Why is it that when someone asked the kids how many more days of school, I answered quicker than they did!” Why is it that my heart yearns for that last day as much, if not more so, than it did when I was in elementary school? Could it be that this is a sign of an over-committed mama?

Mommy Burn-out

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy all of the things that I take on and volunteer for and participate in throughout the school year and sports seasons. In fact, a huge reason why Tim and I have chosen for me to stay home is so that I can be available and involved and plugged in.

I highly encourage volunteering and plugging in at the kids’ schools and sports teams, so you know what’s going on. The other parents know you, and you know your kids’ friends, and oftentimes this will allow you to address issues before they become problems. Kids will open up to you more, and you will be much more in-the-know just by being around.

This being said, it is possible that you can get so plugged in and so committed that your extra obligations, all in the name of supporting, encouraging and being there for your kids, pull you away from the one place you are needed most – your home. Sometimes this is a physical pulling away, but more times than not it is a mental and emotional pulling away.

If you’re running ragged and pulled in so many different directions to support so many people and give so much of yourself to the next big project that your children and your husband only get the leftover, exhausted, grumpy bits of you, then are you really serving your true purpose?

Essentialism

Many of you know I am a podcast junkie! Recently, I was listening Season3, Episode12 of the “This is Your Life” podcast with Michael Hyatt in which Michael interviewed speaker and author, Greg McKeown about his book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. This interview was so thought-provoking for me that I could not get it out of my mind. For the next week it seemed like everyone I listened to was referring to this book. Finally, I could no longer resist buying my own copy and digging in.

I came across some great points that I am savoring and find myself meditating on for hours on end. McKeown says, “The way of the Essentialist rejects the idea that we can fit it all in. Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many…”

He also talks about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate in your highest point contribution by doing only what is essential. A point he continues to drive home is: Less but better.

Doing Less To Be More

So I’m asking myself – Could I do less, and yet be more? Could I do less and accomplish more? Does doing less make me any less? What if doing less actually makes me more of who the Lord created me to be?

Greg drives the point home by really hitting at the heart of our mommy guilt when he says, “It’s about the emotional discipline necessary to say no to social pressure.”

The diagram below (from chapter 1) is one I absolutely cannot get out of my mind. It describes so much of how I have been feeling over the past year+. It makes perfect sense. In fact, when I turned the page and saw this (at 10:30 at night with Tim sleeping soundly beside me) I gasped, “That’s me!”

Time to Self-Evaluate

I truly plan to spend the next couple months by the pool or on the beach (Thank you, Lord that I live in a Florida beach town!) dissecting my life and my commitments and attempting to totally renovate how I make decisions in the way I run my home, live my life, and give of my time and energy.

I highly recommend this book for your summer reading. Take some time to reevaluate whether you are over-committed. Are you struggling to do a little bit of everything, or are you truly doing all you can with the few things that matter most?

                                           

You Get to Choose

I could keep going, (I mean really, when couldn’t I?) but I really want to get back to laying by the pool! I’ll close with one final quote from the book.

Have you forgotten that, yes, in fact, you do have the right to choose what you give yourself, your time and your energy to? And by all means, don’t forget the trade-offs! Saying yes to someone else usually means saying no to your family to some degree. Now, hang on…calm down. No, this doesn’t mean you can never say yes to anyone else, absolutely not. But are you saying yes to others far more than you’re saying yes to your home and your highest calling? I challenge you to slow down, and give it some thought. Do you love your life – because you should!

“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it ^[a]overflows).” John 10:10 (AMPC)

Stay tuned…a new series, Retro Summer will be commencing soon featuring some very special guest bloggers! This summer series is intended to encourage you to simplify, slow down, connect and enjoy life!