The One Thing That Helped Me Fall Back in Love with Life (That You Can Do, Too!)
If you read last week’s {v. long-winded but personal} post about my story and the belief that there’s power in not giving up on your dreams, then you may have noticed a section titled, “The List That Changed Everything.”
In this week’s post, I want to piggyback off of that statement and dig in a little further. Specifically, what list are we talking about and how the heck did it become such a pivotal point in my life story?
First, I’ll note that the “list” we’re talking about is my list of ambitions and priorities.
My life up until that list and then after it feels like two separate versions of me. Before the list, I was living my life on everyone else’s timeline. I was making decisions based on what I thought I should be doing instead of what was true to me. I thought I knew what my priorities were, but they were based on a skewed version of what society said was true.
After the list, I had such tremendous amounts of clarity that I can’t even begin to explain the depths of it. Yes, it took me a hot minute to get going on some of the changes I knew I needed to make. But without taking the time to figure out what I wanted out of this life and who I was made to be, I honestly think I’d still be floating along. I think I’d still be living an overwhelmed and unfulfilling life, feeling friction for not living life the way I want to, and waiting for something to magically change.
The list gave me the power I needed to take action. It inspired me and spurred me on to understand what kind of life I truly wanted. It also gave me the courage I needed to fully lean into the person God created me to be.
There are many things like our faith and taking good care of ourselves we can do to start creating a life we love (more on that in another post soon!), but even those things don’t get to the root of it all.
Truth be told, the only thing that has truly helped me fall back in love with life was to get clear about what mattered to me and then ruthlessly cut the things that weren’t.
The Power of Prioritizing
I’m going to let you in on a secret I’ve learned firsthand: If we want to fall back in love with life, we don’t actually need more time management skills or knowledge. A new planner may help us stay organized, but it won’t help us cut the clutter. Timers and lists and calendar events may make us feel like we have it together, but none of that matters if we’re focusing on the wrong things.
What we need is to get to the root of what matters to us and why, and then take action based on that.
The hard part, let’s be clear, is that many things will seem interesting and noble and worthy of our time, even if they aren’t as big of a priority. You probably already know this to be true.
Without knowing what’s important to us, everything will feel important. Everything will feel like a priority. We’ll succumb to the urge to put out every fire, even if it’s not a fire that’s our responsibility, and especially if it’s a fire that can be left smoldering for a while. We’ll say yes when we really want to say no.
Greg McKeown once wrote, “If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”
I feel that. If we are in the business of living a full, vibrant, intentional, impactful, and amazing life that God says is available to us for the short amount of time we’re here, then we’ve got to get super clear about what matters to us.
We’ve got to hop off the bandwagon and start digging into our own personal values, beliefs, and giftings. We have to stop agreeing with what everyone else says to be true and start getting curious about what’s true to us.
Living in Alignment With Our Priorities
The second part of the equation to help us fall back in love with life involves taking action based on our priorities.
To know what’s important to us and why is good and important work. But many people stop here, myself included!
The problem is that when we know what’s important to us, but we don’t live in alignment with that, we’ll feel friction.
We’ll lose motivation and fulfillment. Life will start to feel like a series of mundane tasks and day-to-day objectives that need to be completed. We lose our spark.
This is what happened to me at first when I finally discovered what wasn’t jiving (i.e. working a full-time job, etc.), but didn’t take action to eliminate those items.
If you can learn to weed and prune the things that are causing you to live out of alignment with what’s truly important to you, you’ll find your spark beginning to return. You’ll find fulfillment in how you spend your time. You’ll lose the overwhelm because you’ll stop working on tasks and taking on events that no longer align. And most importantly, life will start to become fun and motivating again instead of painful, busy, and unclear.
How Do We Get There?
In the past handful(ish) years, I have found this one equation to be the secret sauce to living an intentional, purposeful, and fulfilling life:
My priorities + Living in alignment with those priorities = a life well-lived.
I believe the same equation will work for you if you want to fall back in love with life: Your priorities + living your life in alignment with those priorities = a life well-lived.
(I’m also assuming your priorities don’t involve robbing a bank or intentionally hurting someone. Obviously, if your priorities are meant to cause harm, then you probably won’t have a life well-lived. I’m assuming you wouldn’t be reading this, however, if that was the case.😊)
So let’s turn this over to you. What’s important to you and what do you need to eliminate and/or add to your life in order to live in alignment with that?
Who or what do you care about? What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? What are your core values? How did God create you and what is He calling you to in this lifetime? Now what distractions, commitments, habits, or lifestyle changes can you eliminate to help you live more in alignment?
Getting to the root of that can put you on the fast track to fall back in love with life.
It doesn’t mean life will be perfect or that everything will work out just like you think it will. We’re not going to pretend life is all rainbows and sunshine.
BUT, it will give you clarity when it comes to decision-making. It will help you cut some of the things that are causing you feelings of overwhelm. It will help you slow down and live with more intention because now you know what’s truly important to you and why.
This is good and hard work. It takes time to sift through our priorities and figure out what’s there. It takes mental energy to think about our dreams and our giftings and what we want out of this one wild and precious life.
Need Some Direction and Guidance?
If you’ve read my story and understand what I’m saying here but feel overwhelmed by what steps to take to figure this out in your own life, I can help!
I’m wrapping up a resource, a guided journal of sorts, to get you started on this journey.
In it, we’ll spend a week deep-diving into what your priorities are. Not what you think they should be, not what your friend or neighbor or co-worker or Instagram influencer thinks they should be, but what they truly are to you. We’ll end it with a tangible list that you can use at any point in your life as a guide.
Then, we’ll spend a week working on what you can eliminate to live in closer alignment with that list. This is how we reduce overwhelm. We have to start eliminating. We have to start embracing and living a life that’s true to us instead of trying to do all the things.
Last, we’ll spend a week looking at different areas of your life where your priorities can be redefined and practiced. It’s a week about taking action. Action based on your very real and very personal life.
Interested? Enter your email below to be added to the waitlist! You’ll be one of the first ones to know about this guide when it’s available.
This world needs you. It needs your story, your gifts, and your uniqueness. I can’t wait to see you creating a life you love.💛
