So I’m on this Maria Shriver kick. I checked out a couple of her books from the library on a whim. I think it started b/c our friend Wendell’s wife is a Shriver look alike. Anywho, the two books are Just Who Will You Be? and Ten Things I Wish I’d Known. Both are little books with sweet tidbits and advice aimed for graduates or thereabouts.
In Ten Things I Wish I’d Known, Maria quotes her mother, “LIFE IS A MARATHON”. “You can have it all and be all the things you want to be. Just do it over a lifetime. Don’t try to do them all at once, because you can’t. If you try to, everyone around you will suffer – mostly you.”
Bob Perkins (past STL Young Life Director) said, “You can do two things really well, but when you try to do three you get mediocrity”. For example, this was said for trying to do work, Young Life and school all at once. You get spread too thin.
Missy (another First Lady) was telling me yesterday about her concept of parenting core values and figuring out what are your core values as a parent. For example, one of her parent core values is nutrition, she is going to do everything she can to make sure Sonya gets good nutrition b/c that’s a core value.
What did I get out of these?
1. REASSURANCE Maria’s sweet mom reassured me. I have this pressing desire to DO so many things. Which is crazy b/c before kids and marriage, I didn’t know WHAT I wanted to do and floated around doing nothing for long time. So now, I have all these dreams and desires to do all these things and b/c of this season of life, it’s not the right time. Bummer, but it doesn’t mean that I’ll never have the opportunity to do them.
2. FOCUS Bob and Missy’s advice calls me to reevaluate my focus in areas of my life. Only focus on a couple things and do them well. Missy’s question of “What are my parenting core values?” started a good dialogue between John and I trying to decide what this would be for us. The first thing that came to John’s mind was teaching them how to be a good citizen, which kinda coupled with my idea of respect of all things. Anther thing I have been trying to narrow was an appreciation for the natural world and a desire to learn more about it.
So my question is, how to I daily remind myself of my focus(on my 2 things or core values) when different desires are pulling me in so many directions?
