We are always interested in new ideas for living life well.
Magazine covers brazenly promise quick fixes to our issues of home, health, and relationship.
Courses are offered to become better writers, homeschoolers, mothers, and to increase our productivity. Yet, is there really a sure-fire “formula” for success?
We are bombarded with messages and suggestions. In fact, you’re here right now–perhaps looking for a suggestion or a bit of encouragement.
I hope you find it, but if you ever feel like I’m telling you exactly how to live your life? Or anybody else is telling you? Take a step back.
There’s no one formula for our days. Wisdom to share? Sure. But we should always remember that there are an infinite number of variables; we can’t take them all into account.
How do we calculate growth?
Consider formulas and ideas but don’t trust in them exclusively.
Trust yourself to know that the right things will come up at the right time. Learning is great, but who can number our days besides God?
Why don’t we keep working toward reminding ourselves daily, hourly… that there’s no guilt; no need to be alarmed when other people’s formulas don’t work for us.
We can share lessons, appreciate the journey and apply some of that to ourselves, but we should never try and replicate someone else’s “perfect” plan.
Because it’s their plan. And that’s great, but we have our own unique path to follow.
It’s OK to trust the process and wait and see what you can glean. How God will put the finishing touches on the perfect life for you…
Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success.–Herman Cain
What is the real secret of success?
An example from my own life, is the steady “advice” of changing my structure to become an early bird, instead of a night owl.
No matter how many times people tell me the benefit of early rising? I’ve tried, and truthfully, I’m not interested.
I’ve always known I wasn’t a morning person, but it 47 I’m just deciding that I’m never gonna read anything about becoming a morning person again. And feel totally comfortable with it.
Insomniacs generally do not suddenly follow a formula and become early birds. Maybe some do, but I’m fine with not being one of them. I can enjoy the day just as well when my body starts cooperating at 9 AM. I can probably pray just as well at 11 PM for tomorrow, and end the day with gratitude for today.
Another area would be blogging courses. I diligently worked for YEARS following formulas, plans and trusting the experts to grow and build a platform. Years of full-time hours with no pay, and I followed all.the.steps.exactly.
Guess what? Nothing really changed, at least not what I set out to achieve! The risk there, of course, is that we might feel like “we” failed when someone’s grand promises leave us lacking.
Yet, what if I had gone into the course expecting to learn, but NOT expecting the same outcome as the course promoter? I would have left feeling satisfied and excited about the future. Instead, I learned the very hard way that his way was not my way.
Perhaps my timing just was different. Perhaps my blog, for example, isn’t meant to be what I imagined. Perhaps each step was a stone of knowledge, as I leapfrogged across the bits of information.
Your formula for success is unique to you
We need to let go of putting all of our hope and trust in someone else’s promises and be confident in our own pace. Our own journey!
All those other things that someone else accomplishes? Let’s celebrate them! Then, let’s set out to learn from the masters, while being confident that OUR body/circumstances/intelligence/past influencesand experiences are going to take the good and leave the irrelevant.
Formulas for success are useful and can help us understand and grow, but they will never take into account all the ways our own variables will alter the outcome.
There is no place for comparison, it only steals our delight in living. Enjoy the advice, learn what we can, and extend ourselves heaps of grace while learning to let go of the outcome.
It isn’t the hustle that is wrong, it is the expectation that we are in complete control of the future if we follow someone else’s path. change the experience of our hustle?
What is your one thing? What formula will you let go of?
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Christa, I love that we are not morning people! I always LOVED being a night owl until I had children and the world made me start living an early bird lifestyle. Over the last few years, I’ve really come to terms with my Non-early bird self. Now I just wish my husband, who is an annoyingly happy early bird, could come to terms with it. Ha!!! Life should start about 10 so I have an hour or so to acclimate myself to the new day. I used to feel guilty when I heard about Christians who got up early to pray before they started their day. My morning prayer was usually, “Oh God, Please don’t tell me it is morning! Help me make it through this day!” Then I was reading that the Jewish day starts at sundown. This makes much more since for me and I no longer feel guilty. I end my day with prayer and start my Chosen Child of God day with prayer. How can I go wrong there?!! LOL!
Christa, I love that we are not morning people! I always LOVED being a night owl until I had children and the world made me start living an early bird lifestyle. Over the last few years, I’ve really come to terms with my Non-early bird self. Now I just wish my husband, who is an annoyingly happy early bird, could come to terms with it. Ha!!! Life should start about 10 so I have an hour or so to acclimate myself to the new day. I used to feel guilty when I heard about Christians who got up early to pray before they started their day. My morning prayer was usually, “Oh God, Please don’t tell me it is morning! Help me make it through this day!” Then I was reading that the Jewish day starts at sundown. This makes much more since for me and I no longer feel guilty. I end my day with prayer and start my Chosen Child of God day with prayer. How can I go wrong there?!! LOL!
I appreciate your perspective and can really related. Love that you are owning your evenings and working on your body clock~