Everyone gives their life to something. Be it their spouse, family, job, a cause, or to God, everyone gives it to something or someone. One measurement of what people give their lives to, is where they spend their time.
There's definitely a time and place for Netflix, Hulu, Pinterest, texting, Facebook, Twitter and the like. I enjoy several of these things as much as the next person. However, the nights that I realize I've been scrolling through Twitter/Facebook feeds for half an hour straight make me feel like I'm wasting my time. I feel that if the vast majority of my time is not spent persuing the 3-5 things that I want to give my life to, then something is screwed up. Also, not doing this leaves me feeling like a waste of space.
So, without further ado, here are my top 3.
1. My relationship with God
2. My relationship with my family/friends
3. My job satisfaction/providing adequate income
Now, I'd say that most of the time, the time spent in each of the categories is in the reverse order of how they're listed. But, they're not. So, I've got some work to do. However, I'm getting there. I've made a major change in my life in the last week. The thing that requires most of my time and most of my energy is going to change.
I'm switching jobs.
I'm keenly aware of the fact that working at East drains me of most of my physical and mental engery, not to mention my time. To be honest, I love the kids. I love the staff. The thing I don't love is educational policy/politics. I will look for another teaching job. I guess I should give another school/district a shot before I hang it up for good. Who knows, maybe It'll be different.
The thing that I'll never get away from in a typical job is the amount of time I spend maintaining it. I will always view it as number 3 on the list, yet it will almost always claim the number 1 spot. So, my wife and I are slowly adopting a different lifestyle.
We're lowering our budget and restructuring our lives to make it possible for our jobs to be less and our families/relationships with God to be more.
We've decided that if Kristen opens an in home day care, we can make progress towards this goal. So, Kristen has decided to do this and she's quite excited about it. I've got a summer gig lined up and who knows what'll happen after that. It doesn't matter. What will matter in ten or twenty years will be how I used the time I was given.
So, in summary, everyone gives their lives to someone or something. Is the thing that you're giving your life to worth it?
