Being a Master

I swung the other way for a while. I was telling Pam this in the car on the way back from church this morning.   It was the classic story. I gave up for a little while. I went a little wild. Thank goodness He protected me. Thank goodness I have good friends who don't give up on me. Thank goodness I came back around.

We all need reasons to live life a certain way. As it's been said, those Crazy Stories were fun to live and I'm glad we made it through... but it's not where I want to be. And the choices I make now influence my future and so I need to be making wise choices. Choices about where I spend my time. Choices about who I hang out with. I might be giving away a great book idea but check this out:

For the next 50 years of my life, I will have 206,250 hours (after sleep and work, providing I sleep 7 hours a night and work 40 hours a week until I'm 80). If the theory is true that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at something, if I dedicate myself to a practice, I could be a master of 20 things before I'm 80. A master. So then the questions is, what do I want to be a master of? Where should I spend my time??

What am I trying to say?

Every day gets filled up. Every free moment is simply a pause before the next flight. I've blogged about the craziness of my life and I'm realizing that I've always been this way. My journals and poetry in high school were all about the pressures of juggling family and friends and school. In college, I was never home. Jered and I filled up every evening with studies and plans and meetings and groups. I know families struggle with juggling kids and homework and time but I'm just little ol' me. And yet I triple scheduled myself this Thursday. Double booked myself on Monday. I had to remake plans. I had to call people and cancel. I had to decide what's important to me.

Working out
Church and my bible study ladies
Spending time with the friends who matter and who balance me and whom I can pour in to...
Family

It suddenly occurred to me why I never dated in high school. Sure, I was self conscious about my weight but in reality, I was far too busy. It takes a lot of effort to get to know someone. It takes time. You have to make that a priority. It's a commitment.

So I say all this because a guy I'd met txt'd last night and wanted to hang out this week. He's pretty cool, I bet we'd get along very well. He invited me to the dog park to hang out.  I do not have a free evening this week. I'm gone with my mom to Colorado next week. I told him maybe sometime after the 17th...

Sorry, guys, apparently you need to get on a 2-week waiting list for me. And don't wait until the 17th to plan anything because you're most likely looking at 2 weeks out from there as well...

I have to think that this is all somehow normal, that this is just a part of being grown up... Surely it's not just me...