{action step} Pick Three

Wow, the first full week of our Living Well series is wrapping up … what do you think so far?

I do hope you’ve been encouraged and maybe even a little challenged already. Those three truths we talked about last week are the keys to everything else. Remember them! You can’t do it all. You can be content. And you are most certainly not alone.

This week, we discussed learning to live well. Understand this is a process and we have to be willing to take it one step {one day, one moment} at a time. In the conversation about good vs. best, the comments were amazing! I do hope my story of the life of a cheer mom helped you remember to embrace whatever season you’re in. But most of all, I am praying you’ve accepted the truth we all need to prioritize rest in our lives.

So, here we are at Friday … this is action step day. I’m going to share a specific idea you can implement to help you as you learn to live well.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

A few years ago, I read a post on Simple Mom that literally changed my life. She shared about developing Most Important Tasks for every day. Three of them in fact. Since then, I have used this idea regularly and shared it with every woman I have mentored and countless others along the way. Basically it’s this:

Of all the things on your to do list for the day, identify the three most important. Give them the priority.

I do this almost every day … and I’ve given myself permission to call the day a success if I get all three of them done — regardless of what remains undone on “the list.”

For example, today I need to do these three things:

Write a blog post for Not Quite Amish this month.
Do three loads of laundry.
Help Scott paint at the church.

As long as those three things get done, today is good. Yes, there are about 27 other items on my list. And yes, several of those should get done today. But, they are not the priority items. That blog post for NQA was due yesterday so it HAS to be done today. The laundry sorter is full but not overflowing – yet! If I can get three loads done, it won’t look so overwhelming. And this week has been pretty crazy and I feel like I haven’t spent much quality time with my husband. He’s been painting the choir room at the church and asked me to help him today. Now, painting isn’t my favorite way to spend a Friday but I always want to be a true helper in Scott’s life and if painting is what he needs, that’s what I’ll do!

Now, for your assignment: Identify your MITs every day for the next week. Don’t evaluate if they’re “right” or not … just look at the list and pick three. Then, as long as they are done, call the day a success. I think you’ll find if you do this, you’ll find those moments for rest and you’ll begin to see what best looks like in your life and you might even come to grips with not doing it all. 🙂

Okay, there you have it! For the next seven days, just pick three. You can do this!!

How does the idea of calling the day a success as long as you finish your MITs appeal to you? Does it scare you a little?

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I hope you are finding this series encouraging and useful. If you haven’t go ahead and subscribe to make sure you receive each day’s post in your inbox. See you tomorrow!

Oh and all my 31 Days of Living Well posts will indexed here. Just in case you want to bookmark that page for easy reference.