Counting The Cost

When someone asks, it can be hard to say no.

Such was the case for me not long ago. An organization that is doing important work, as in really important work, asked if I would consider bringing my experience and expertise to their efforts. Because I hold them in high esteem, respect their work, and consider their mission critical, I was honored to even be asked. It was a request not to be taken lightly, which I didn’t. I took time to consider it and did my research.

There was a part of me that was ready to say yes. Another part still wasn’t sure. Until my good friend and colleague asked me the clarifying question I needed.

What won’t you have the time or energy for if you commit to this?”

As important and crucial as this work was, it wasn’t mine to do.

Saying yes to one thing means having to say no somewhere else. Putting energy here means less energy there. Committing the time to this endeavor leaves less time for that one.

Before jumping in to almost anything, it is good to count the cost.

Word Of The Day: ENERGIZED 2.0

Over the next few weeks I will be focusing on a word of the day drawn from a list created at the beginning of the month. Each word was chosen to serve as a guide to inspire and inform my steps through 2020. If you are just joining me now and want to look in on earlier posts on this topic, you will find links to each at the end.


ENERGIZED

Being energized and being exhausted are not necessarily mutually exclusive experiences.

Sometimes the things that energize us the most are the most exhausting. At least in the short term. These are the things that take everything we have to give, and which, once given a chance to refuel, we will show up and do them again.

We are willing to exhaust ourselves doing something we passionately care about, love doing no matter how hard, or that fills us with so much joy that we can’t help but lay it all on the line.

Photo by Juliano Ferreira from Pexels

Photo by Juliano Ferreira from Pexels

Word Of The Day: ENERGIZED

Over the next few weeks I will be focusing on a word of the day drawn from a list created at the beginning of the month. Each word was chosen to serve as a guide to inspire and inform my steps through 2020. If you are just joining me now and want to look in on earlier posts on this topic, you will find links to each at the end.


ENERGIZED

When I sat down to write about this word, I didn’t expect to be writing about a rabbit, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the Energizer Bunny. That cool, pink, sunglass sporting, flipflop wearing, drum beating hare is, “…According to the 2017 Madison Avenue Hall of Fame Poll, the most iconic mascot…" around. Who knew? On further thought however, it makes total sense. That smiling pink bunny just keeps going, and going, and going, no matter what. It seems to have a consistent source of energy for whatever life brings. Who wouldn’t want that?

While the bunny may run on batteries, I do not.

I need physical energy to fuel this body, the only one I have. Giving it what it needs is the least I can do to repay it all the ways in which it has loved and supported me through the last 66 years. To keep up my mojo means, at the very least, making it a priority to feed and water it well, move it often, and give it a rest for at least 7, and hopefully 8 hours a night.

I need emotional energy to live with an open heart. A heart that fuels me to love fearlessly, engage with others authentically, and encounter the truth in myself and the world around me with courage and compassion. To keep my emotional tank topped off means cultivating relationships that are life-giving, reading the work of writers that invite me over the threshold of my current emotional maturity, and a dogged determination to keep doing the inner work necessary to live into my true and best self.

I need mental energy to stay present and sharp with every passing year. If I’m to live a life of purpose and meaning to the end, the only viable choice is to continue to stretch and challenge my brain even when it tires me out. it. Especially when it tires me out, as that means I am moving into new territory just waiting to be explored. Stoking my intellectual fires comes through paying attention to what sparks my curiosity, plugging into learning communities, and finding and connecting with others who are up for the same challenge.

And.

I need spiritual energy to stay connected to my core beliefs, of which there are three. We are all created in the image of that which created us. We are all called to live authentic, wholehearted lives. We are all called to love, help, and heal the world that is within our reach. If that doesn’t require spiritual energy, I don’t know what does. Spiritual fuel comes from gathering with my faith community, steeping in spiritual wisdom wherever I find it, and daily spiritual practices that remind me that it isn’t all about me.

In order to keep going, and going, and going, means knowing, and doing, what it takes to power the life we have.


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