Renew, Relax, Recenter
My wife and I just did an amazing thing. We spent Friday evening through Sunday afternoon alone... without kids!
A couple of months ago I was listening to a podcast and someone being interviewed mentioned that a key ingredient to success is finding time for focused planning. He said that so many spend too much time IN their business and not enough time ON their business.
I have heard this many times before in different ways but it really hit me this time. It describes my current life to a tee. It is so easy to spend time IN our busy lives that we neglect to work ON our lives. My wife and I have difficulty getting enough exercise, getting enough sleep, and staying on top of things in our crazy lives. Even though we know better, it is so hard to change our patterns because we are in what seems like survival mode most of the time.
So we made a commitment to spend a weekend focusing ON our lives.
We reserved a hotel in our city for two nights. And with the help of my wonderful mother-in-law who watched our four kids, we were able to spend time away to recharge and recommit to the things that matter most to us.
The goal was to concentrate on some of the big picture items in our lives:
Our finances
Our health
Our marriage
Our parenting
Our daily routines
It was exactly what the doctor ordered. Here are some brief examples of things we accomplished during our planning session:
We talked about what is truly most important to us and how we want to live our lives.
We discussed our finances and made some changes in the roles we will play in our money management.
We created some specific financial goals.
We discussed my wife’s business and how to make it even better.
We committed to getting some additional exercise and made a plan of how we could realistically achieve those commitments.
We made some plans how to eat healthier family meals.
We planned out our 18-day national park vacation we are taking this summer.
We talked about what our life will be like when I am no longer a teacher at the end of this year and go full-time as a financial planner.
We ate out three times over the weekend! Did I mention there were no kids?
We identified some strategies and routines so that we and our children can lower the amount of time with our phones or electronic devices and spend more time reading books.
This was time and money so well spent. We feel like we are in control again!
We know it won’t be easy to accomplish all of the things we are trying to do and the changes we will make, but we are very excited to do our best to execute our plan.
Everyone should do something like this.
Would you benefit from taking a weekend to plan out your life?
Are you in need of new commitments and change?
Do your routines need a revamp?
How much anxiety would be lowered if you worked on your finances?
If this sounds like something you need. Take the leap and schedule it today! Find a way to get rid of all the obstacles and reasons you couldn’t possibly do something like this that I’m sure you are thinking about right now. You will not be sorry!
