The other day I was on a conference call and I decided to go outside and prune my roses so I could get 2 things done at once. I was holding the dead leaves I cut off and all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my hand. I thought a little thorn had stuck me but I looked and it was actually a bee stinger with the bee just a few inches over next to it.
I haven’t been stung by a bee in a long time and I forgot, it really freakin’ hurts! I dropped the phone on the ground (with the conference still going) and ran inside to put a lavender and chamomile oil compress on it.
As I was sitting there with a burning, throbbing hand I realized that bee was giving me a message: I shouldn’t be multi-tasking. If I was just pruning the roses, I would’ve noticed the bee was sitting in my hand.
When we divide our attention, we divide our intelligence and the tasks at “hand” suffer. It also creates more stress because we’re “beeing” (ok sorry, last one) split in several directions.
This happens to coincide with a book I’m reading called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. It’s about figuring out what’s really important and cutting out all the non-essential stuff that takes our time and energy away from what we actually want. Creating a life by design instead of a life by default.
It’s like this, Non-essentialists say: “I have to”, “it’s all important” and “I can do both”.
Essentialists say: “I choose to”, “only a few things matter” and “I can do anything but not everything”.
When we cut out the non-essential stuff, we have more time to do what we want, play (an activity that helps with creativity, clarity, productivity, stress reduction and keeps us healthy) and spend time with people we enjoy, while getting more of what really matters accomplished.
“When we forfeit our right to choose, someone else will choose for us.” -Greg McKeown
Your life is going to happen no matter what, so be mindful of your desires and say no to what you don’t want.
By taking a little bit of time to ask yourself what you want to create with your energy, it will open up a whole lot of space for joy, fun and fulfillment.
So I challenge you to write down: What’s really important to you, what do you want to create with your time and what do you want to get rid of? Where can you fit in more fun and connection, less distractions and obligations.
Give yourself 5 minutes right now to do it. You’re worth it!
