Before we start the festivities, my book turns one this week. If you haven’t read The Freedom of Missing Out, I think it’s as relevant today as it was a year ago. If you have read it, I would love it if you left a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Grazie!
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The times when I am most impatient are usually the periods when I have not made time for beauty, prayer, friends, and family.
Our interactions with others are not simply the result of a conscious decision we make in the moment. Previous decisions about how we spend our time influence how we treat other people.
Being creative or spontaneously helpful tends to occur when I have put myself in a good place by spending time with God and getting good sleep.
Just trying to exert more willpower is unlikely to work. Cultivating habits that put us in a better place will have downstream benefits.
Some things are out of our control. The parents of a newborn will experience disrupted sleep. A health condition may limit one's mobility. Finances may curtail one's options.
But as adults, we largely get to choose what we consume and how we spend our time.
When we spend our time and energy thinking about the latest scandal du jour over which we have no influence, we are unlikely to be the people we would like to be.
When we focus on "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious" (Phil 4:8), we have a much better shot.
Our "inputs" shape our "outputs."