So, I just found myself scrolling on Instagram instead of getting to my computer to journal and start my work for the day.

I have 1-2 precious quiet hours of work before the kids get up to get things done. And I usually have a pretty fresh head in the morning to do some really productive work. And also, it’s quiet.

Instead of working…I watched Insta-Stories. Just letting them be spoon-fed to me, one after the other, without having to do much of anything but sit there.

I thought, I’ll just do this for like 10 minutes to get caught up and then I’ll go journal.

Next thing, I look up, and an hour has passed. I missed my entire window of productivity!

 

If you’re thinking “yeah, so?” let me explain how tragic this is…

Imagine if I used that time to actually put 20 minutes into a book I’m writing, 20 minutes into connecting with people, 20 minutes into personal development, etc.

Imagine what I could create 30 days, 1 year from now.

I could have several books written. Several programs launched. Be a whole new person.

I keep promising myself I’ll do that…make space every day for the book, the program, the self-work. I know that after a month or two of doing that, the book could be done, the program could be launched, I could refine myself even more. I keep promising myself I’ll set aside the pointless time wasters for the important stuff.

But I somehow end up plunked down in front of tube-fed media.

 

Now, usually this isn’t a big deal. I may watch one show at night to wind down before bed. I may scroll while I’m waiting in the car to pick someone up. No biggie.

But this morning, I did so during my most productive working hours. Knowingly avoiding my purpose work. Knowingly avoiding progress.

So, I thought, you’re going to ditch your true purpose work for mindless …. with no purpose.

You’re trading your purpose for no purpose?

How wretchedly, painfully, heartbreakingly STUPID is that?

 

Let me ask you the same thing…

How often do you put aside your purpose work for no purpose?

It’s hard to really look stone-cold in the eye at habits like this. It hurts. It sucks.

But it’s completely necessary to prevent you from dying a slow death with so much sparkle bursting inside of you.

Our culture is so preconditioned to tolerate the “I don’t feel like it.”

We’re trained to not feel like it.

I don’t feel like getting on the floor and playing with my kids.

I don’t really feel like using a sacred quiet hour at night to work.

I don’t really feel like adding more responsibility to my job.

I don’t really feel like extending myself any further than I already do.

I don’t really feel like getting off Instagram.

But the part that hurts the worst is looking back at the last 3 years and realizing you haven’t come as far as you want. If you look 3 years into the future and it still looks like this …. will you be heartbroken with where you are?

Because this hour today, the same mindless hour tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next…

They could easily add up to a year, three years, a lifespan spent squandering your precious time away.

 

So that purpose of yours?

You NEED to feel like it.

You NEED to just rip yourself away and do it.

You NEED to dig in and find the energy inside of yourself that you need to move forward.

You NEED to nurture that beautiful gift that’s unfurling inside of you.

You NEED to share your gifts, not squander them.

 

Essentially, you need to figure out your true values and be true to them. Get really darn honest with yourself.

 

Here’s your homework: Sit down and journal (no, right now). On one side of the page, answer the question “what do you know is your true purpose in this world? What do you want to contribute?”

On the other side of the paper, write down the activities of “no purpose” you, in all honesty, waste a good portion of your day on. Honest honest honest. Whether it’s as embarrassing as stealing away to the bathroom for a 1/2 hour to play Candy Crush or as understandable as reading through news stories. Though you may find those activities stimulating, they’re not true to your purpose, are they?

 

My answer: My purpose work is the 5 f’s: Faith, Family, Fitness, Forest, and Freelance. I would put them all into another pretty F called full-bodied living. The work of “no purpose” I do is scroll on Instagram (watching other people achieve things) and puttering around the house to avoid my purpose work.

Now, it’s time to get really freaking honest and really crazy overwhelmed with yourself. How are you going to feel if you spend the next 365 days doing what you’re doing and get nowhere?

I’ve had enough!

Have you?

I’m really mad and ready to do this differently.

Are you with me?

Let’s DO something today.

Pop a comment and let me know what you accomplished today?