Slow and Steady

"Slow and steady wins the race" a wise older woman taught me this year. I tell myself this every week: "Slow and steady, you don't have to do everything at the same time!" When I met the love of my life six years ago I wanted to get married, have babies and buy a house right away. We ended up planning our wedding at the same time as we were in the process of buying a new house. Let's just say the process was quite stressful. It's natural to want it all and want it now, but it's not necessarily the best approach to life. We are only human and nobody can do too many different things at the same time, not without getting a burn out. If we keep doing too many things at the same time it's not possible to keep a high quality in every area of life, something will suffer and fail, whether it's your marriage, your health, your career or something else.

I want to strive for excellence in everything I do in life but then I can't do too many things at the same time. I wonder if one of the reasons so many people are unhappy and unhealthy in today's society is because we live such fast lives? We want to fulfill all our dreams by age 40 at the latest and we don't want to wait on anything. My mother can tell you that I'm not the most patient person in the world. Patience is something I really need to practice. Three years ago I was still a fairly new Christian and I was excited to discover what the purpose is for my life. Today I'm starting to have a pretty clear picture of my purpose in life and I know what God is calling me to do with my life. Now when I know what I'm called to do I want to do it all at the same time of course. I have to force myself to wait and not pursue every dream at the same time. If I get around 70-100 years on this planet it's evident that I don't need to fulfill all my dreams and my life's purpose during my thirties. I have all the time I need.

I like to make a one-year-plan in my notebook in January every year and beside it I have a list of all the big goals I have for a whole lifetime. I pick 1-2 things to focus on each year and the rest will have to wait until next year, or until next decade. There's no need to overbook my schedule one year when I have so many years ahead. I want to focus on quality in whatever I do each year. I don't want to be so busy that I don't have time to have a Date Night with my husband, to spend a lot of time with the family and my friends. I don't want to be so busy that I have to skip taking care of my physical or emotional health."Less is more"and "Slow and steady"are mantras I try to live by. I also find that I enjoy life so much more when I move through life at a slower pace. I have time to stop and reflect on things and feel grateful for everything that God has blessed me with so far in life. Life is so beautiful, I don't want to miss it by being too busy or because I move too fast through life.