I almost … almost made this a one word blog post. The one word would have been “How?”
How do we “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry”?
Dallas Willard’s statement is grand — Stop hurrying — and show no mercy toward anything that stands in your way of slowing down! — but let’s be honest with one another. Eliminating hurry from our lives is hard!
Slowing down means saying no … over and over again. It means stopping not just one thing or another … but many things. Can I be honest? Of course I can — I just said we were going to do that, didn’t I? Just a couple of hours before I wrote this blog, my daughter Amy sat beside me on the couch and said, “I’m going to teach you a new word, Mom. It’s this: N-O. NO. Now say it after me. NO. NO.” And I followed her lead. Said, “NO.”
And then I went back to the crazy hurriedness that I’d been doing right before her little intervention.
Amy meant well. More than that, she was right. But I wasn’t ready for change –much less being ruthless about it.
Maybe before we can eliminate hurry from our lives, we need to ask why we want to eliminate hurry. What’s the opposite of hurrying? I would say it’s being intentional. And I would also say that being intentional is better than hurrying here and there and everywhere else … wouldn’t you?
In Your Words: Which would you rather: Hurry or Be Intentional? And how would you eliminate hurry from your life? (You can choose to be ruthless or not.)
In Others' Words: Eliminate Hurry http://bit.ly/2w9egQf #perspective #beintentional Click To Tweet 'Ruthlessly eliminate hurry.' quote by Dallas Willard http://bit.ly/2w9egQf #quotes #slowdown Click To Tweet
I’m continuing to count down the days until Things I Never Told You, releases — 5 days! I turned in book 2 to my editors last Sunday and am planning to start plotting book 3 in June. You can read the first chapter of TINTY and get a glimpse of my “Little Women gone wrong” story from Tyndale House Publishers. Also, there are all sorts of fun giveaways going on right now — thanks to my publisher and various guest blog posts — and they’re shared on my Author Facebook page.
Comments 6
Which brings us back to the ever present issue of our priorities—or at least it does for me. I can’t eliminate hurry until I eliminate some of the to-do list! Thanks for the words to ponder today. I’m going to hurry up and do that!?
Author
Oh, Lori, you made me laugh with the last part of your answer — always a priority!
And one thing I’ve learned about priorities?
There is no such thing as a straight 1-2-3 priority list.The challenge is juggling those competing #1s … 😉
Ouch. Yeah, you may have hit a nerve here. I am actually getting better about slowing down. I love what you used as the opposite of hurry. Intentional. My one word in a recent year.
I think you’re right. When we are intentional, we are making a conscious choice about what we do or don’t do. We may choose seasons of busyness, but we were intentional in the choice.
I’m working on becoming more intentional in what I say yes to, or N-O to. So hard to say that little word sometimes. I’m trying to be intentional about setting boundaries on my time so I have time for the important things.
Author
Jeanne: You and I exercise some intentionality in our lives, don’t we? When we look at our calendars and say, “Coffee date? Yes, please!” and put in down. It may be three weeks out — but it’s there.
Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
Author
Andrew, my friend, I always like it when you start or join the conversation … 🙂