Choices Challenged

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#Sunsetonmystoop

The last few weeks have forced me to be home each day by 445pm latest to meet my son after school. A couple of times I have literally made it by the skin of my teeth. There have been times when I wished I didn’t have all this responsibility and could just stay late in town and then come and sleep instead of have to get home early, cook clean and everything that goes with mother and wife hood.

This week has been close to brutal because of work but I have had to find strength in being me and doing things how I like them. A few things have made it worthwhile:
1. The little man now walks home from school on his own so no stress
2. The little man makes decisions with me on what to cook for dinner
3. Once in a while I get treated to ‘Rest a bit mama before you get up to cook’
4. The stillness and beauty of watching the sunset and taking photos

In all of this I do realise the fact that in life we have decisions to make and no situation is too hard to manage. I would never have believed that I would live without a nanny but this is now more than 30 days and I haven’t died or lost my mind (come close to it a couple of times but I have survived). I read a tweet that led me to a blog that I must share. The article is a Harvard Business Review Blog by Meredith Fineman called “Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are..

The basic synopsis is as follows:
1. Don’t use your level of involvement to appear better than the less busy people
2. Your level of importance doesn’t rise just because you’re always busy
3. Don’t forget that relationships are important and help ground us as humans
4. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
5. There’s nothing macho about long hours
6. Select work,assignments, commitments strategically

This got me thinking of how I will evaluate my life and gain increased perspective. After a lot of thought and introspection, I settled on several questions that I will call my ‘Choice Matrix’. I will ask the all the time to ensure my choices are adequate for me and those around me:
1. What is my life’s purpose?
2. What is of eternal value?
3. Where will I have the greatest impact?
4. How does this fit into the above?

The questions are a daily on going thing and I am determined not to do things just because people are doing them. I must be certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is what I must do even if I walk alone. Thankfully I have found that as I pursue this direction my life is realigning and people who can challenge me are locating me and walking with me.

What a lovely walk in life.

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