Tim H. Swanson
It's no secret around my church that I'm in recovery. I have been for a long time. I work the steps, have a sponsor, and attend meetings - at least, that's what I'm supposed to do to maintain my mental and spiritual health. But sometimes life gets busy. That's when I start making excuses, and sidestepping important things for urgent things. Recently, I was confronted on this in a very sobering way.
It was a Friday afternoon. I was in the middle of building a backdrop for the church's stage, and finishing some other last minute details for a worship album release I was hosting the very next night. I walked out the rear door of my green-room and bumped into a church member. She's in her 70's, and she regularly attends the recovery meetings that are hosted at my church. She was walking into the room next to the green-room to attend an A.A. meeting that takes place there every Friday. We are familiar with each other's recovery stories, so we stopped and caught up for a second. Before I walked away I commented, "I have to come to this Friday meeting one of these days" (not the first time I've said that to her).
The frail perm haired woman looked into the room and then back at me, "why don't you just come right now?" Fearful of the idea of losing more than an hour of my precious workday, I hemmed and hawed about how much I had to do to prepare for the release. As I listed my burdens, she stood there looking unimpressed. When I was done talking, she uttered one word, "weak." Then she turned and walked into the meeting room, leaving me standing stupified outside the door.
I know what I need to do for my own health (so did that sweet old lady who told me off), but actually doing it is another thing entirely. I let urgent things overtake important things. Then my life gets out of control. The worst part is I'm not the only one who pays for that. When my life is chaos, my family, my team members, my friends - they all pay for it too. I hate that.
Are you like me? Does your life get a little out of whack when deadlines get tight? If that's the case then let me ask you another question. What would become possible if you picked one urgent thing and one important thing this week and swapped them. If you allowed just one urgent thing to fall off the list and moved one important thing into action? You could begin a shift to a healthier life.
Question: What's one important thing that you've been putting off in favor of the urgent?
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