first days of fall

It feels like Fall here. Actually it feels like it has been Fall in Seattle for awhile, but we won't get into that.

As Summer has wrapped up I have been thinking about my schedule and how I spend my time. I think I view my life as on a school based calendar--so with September comes new goals, hopes and plans for the next year. This year I'm taking a little different approach to thinking through how I want to spend my time. I'm starting with a list of my roles. It wasn't my idea. It is the one thing I gleaned from some expensive seminar I took for work last year sponsored by Franklin and Covey (that company that makes the ridiculously expensive planners). At the time, I told Lance I was taking a "get your life together seminar". Well, I'm just getting my life together.

So I've been thinking about the different roles I play in my life and trying to use that as a framework for planning how I spend my time. My roles are: employee, wife, sister, daughter, friend, work out buddy, student of life and follower of Jesus. So my approach: fit in weekly opportunities to accomplish specific tasks that strengthen me in each role. So I'm committed to working out Tuesdays and Thursdays with my work out buddies at Rainier Health and Fitness: role of work out buddy fulfilled. I call and talk to a friend for a 30 minutes or visit with a friend over coffee: role of friend fulfilled. Am I sounding too rigid and task oriented? Maybe, but it is working for me.

Usually when I get overwhelmed by life it is when I feel like I have not been able to keep up with obligations to others and I am putting off things I need to get done. Usually, when this happens if I slow down enough to think clearly, I realize that the things I've put off could be done quickly and the people I think I have dissapointed are ok. I'm finding that I am much happier and satisfied with life when I can feel good about reaching out to one friend a week. Really, that isn't bad; it is good.

Plus, thinking about my roles leaves me room to feel good about the time I spend doing things I enjoy. My role as a student of life is just as important to me as my roles as employee and friend. Because it is my time spent reading, gardening and cooking that keeps me refreshed and sane for the other roles I play.

So with that, I head into the Library to get my next book and to find a new recipe to make tonight.