God will help me stay on track.
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
- Hebrews 12:11 (New International Version)
A couple weeks before I took my final leap into full-time entrepreneurship, I found myself thinking hard about how I’m going to need to develop a solid routine for myself with all the new free time I’ll have. I know better than to think I’m immune to lottery winner syndrome happening to me -- all this new found time leading to an inevitable crash and burn (I think of time as currency, just like money).
But then I started playing a bunch of scenarios in my head about how things coming up in my life could throw my routine off. What will happen if bae gets this certain job or how will my routine change if I get selected for that podcast accelerator I applied for (😏)? It began to dawn on me that, no matter what routine I set, inevitably, it’s going to get busted like a March Madness bracket at some point. Here’s what I felt the Lord speaking to me in the midst of these thoughts:
You think you need a routine when, really, you just need to be able to ebb and flow with actual life.
Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve lived long enough to realize that life is mostly never routine. Stuff happens (good and bad) that you didn’t expect, plan for or budget. And when it does, you don’t need a routine, you need discipline. Now I’m not advocating for ditching routines altogether by any means, I’m just saying that having one will not prevent your life from getting off track. You need to practice still doing the things you know you gotta do when your life gets off track (unless of course you're going through a legit crisis or something; all bets are understandably off at that point).
Yea I know it sounds easier said than done, but the good news is life gives you plenty of opportunities to practice. As I look back over my last few years in entrepreneurship with this new lens, I see how God has been grooming me to be flexible when things in life change up on me. I bet if you look closely at whatever you’ve been growing through, you’ll see it too.
Life is difficult on its own but then add entrepreneurship to the mix and you have a whole new set of challenges to overcome and opportunities to, um...practice. But of course God knew that already so He’s been preparing you for this. All you have to do is keep flowing with Him. Don’t beat yourself up or throw in the towel when things get off track. Instead I challenge you to approach all wrenches thrown into your schedule this week like this little firecracker and crush it.
PS. Have you taken my 3-question survey yet? I know it sounds corny but your opinion really matters as I plan the next stages of Big Idea Food. Thanks in advance!
Still hungry? Eat some more //
Hebrews 12:1-12