Struggling with Expectations

This is the sixth post in a series expanding on 20 Things I Learned from My Toddler.

You can fit a lot more commitments in your life than you think.

As a full-time college student several years ago, I remember how busy my life was and couldn’t imagine fitting more responsibilities into my life. However, I added a part time job near the end of my first full-time semester. A few years later, my wife and I became homeowners of a home in need of some maintenance. I just couldn’t imagine fitting more into my life. Yet I did.

Then Tristen was born. Now, I look back on my college years and wonder how I managed to keep from getting bored with all the free time I had.

Expectations and Stress

I have found that the level of responsibility I take on does not correlate with the level of stress I experience. Stress is fear. It comes from a lack of confidence in ourselves to handle that which we must face. It comes from a lack of faith.

Today is one of those days where my faith in myself and in God’s plan for me is struggling. With the Christmas holiday approaching, my business thriving with work, my son at a high-maintenance time in his life, my wife in school and several other looming responsibilities, it is hard to imagine accomplishing all I wish to accomplish. What is interesting about these responsibilities which are currently sources of stress in my life is that they are all things which give me a great deal of joy. If I were to create a gratitude list today and a list of struggles in my life today, they would have the same content.

Time Management

Even when our gratitude list and list of stresses are not clearly matched, if we search deep enough, we can find some underlying desire to every responsibility that we have. This is the key to time management.

I have written in the past that Joy is Time Management. Time management is enjoying what we do and doing what we enjoy. When we focus on the things that give us joy, we find motivation, energy, focus and drive. We find inspiration. We are able to accomplish things that seem impossible.