Living Better & Less Busy!!!

Oh my, time does fly. It is so sad to think how little time I have to spend with friends and family. Most of my life has been wrapped up in work and school for the past year. Luckily, I can count my co-workers and many of my professors and classmates as friends. I have made some really awesome friends in the past year.

One of my new co-workers gets to hear about all my problems. Of course, I listen to his problems too. He has a lot of life experience to draw on and I am thankful for him. And I have met some very interesting people in my classes as well. One of my professors in particular I will never forget. She has taught me some valuable lessons about teaching, learning, and being a leader. I was lucky to have 3 classes with her, and I am seriously contemplating taking the last 2 project management classes with her. I told her that I want to come and sit in on her classes just for the fun of it. (Can you say geek? lol.) Anyhow, she told me if I come I am teaching the class. Go figure. I love this teacher because she is such an encourager.

Besides my school/work calendar there is also the social calendar. One of the hardest things you can do is make a decision about who you are going to spend time with. When we were kids the answers were usually pretty simple. Once we became working adults and our social networks got bigger the answers started to be a little harder to come by. Now some people keep there networks intentionally small and thats ok. The decision is a lot easier for them. Many of us keep them intentionally big though.

I personally have many overlapping circles of friends. The majority of my friends don't really know each other at all. I try to remedy that on as many occasions as possible. However, the decision still exists and it is made even harder because you have to balance each others schedules. Once again, I had a friend share a bit of wisdom with me. They told me that they would rather hang out with maybe one or two people and be intentional about it rather than with a big group of friends and not really get much more than a fun time out of it. I personally think there is a balance, but it is important to create times where you are intentional about maintaining your closest relationships. For people like me who pretty much treats everyone as a friend it means distinguishing who is in your inner circle. Tough decisions indeed.

If there was one guy who so eloquently put balance into perspective it was Rudyard Kipling. His poem "If" is amazing and one of my favorites. This post started out being about how busy life is and how we need to make time for friends and family. The real answer is that it is about balance. Even the Bible says a wise person will avoid all extremes. So here is Kipling's full quote. Enjoy!

If you can keep your head when all about you
People are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!