In my last blog, I wrote about how doing less is the key to doing more. So why write a blog entitled, “Do More,” right after that? Well, I don’t think anyone wants less for their life. We all want to achieve more, have more benefits, and accomplish more in the future. We want to “do more” of the things we love.
Like I said in the last post if we want more than we need to do less. Here are three things we need to do less of if we’re going to do more of the things that mean the most to us.
Stop doing too much
One of the books I read last year that helped me do more was Finish, by Jon Acuff. I highly recommend it. He says one of the best thing you can do is cut your goals in half. The funny thing is right before reading this, I had just set my goals for the year. I shared them with Amy. Her response was, “Your goals are stressing me out, and they aren’t even my goals.” This is important because the people who tend to set goals are the same ones who set too many goals and don’t get to them all. They give up and do less.
I immediately cut my goals in half after reading that chapter in Finish. Amy was relieved. I ended up accomplishing my new reading goals and then tripled them. I built momentum and did more by setting a more attainable goal.
Stop waiting for permission
Sometimes we can put off doing what is in our heart because we are expecting everyone else to be as excited about our passions as we are. If that is the case, then God would have given those passions to others instead of you.
Stop waiting for someone to give you permission to be who God made you to be and to obey what He has put in your heart. When you stand before God, and He asks you what you did with your life and what He put in your heart to do, those other people won’t be there to take the blame. Go for it!
Stop making excuses
Last year I had a goal if getting an article published by a major Christian magazine. I felt discouraged because my writing wasn’t getting more recognition. I felt I had something to say, but no one was listening. Then I asked myself, how many magazines have I submitted articles to? Am I expecting people to chase me down and ask me to write for them? Of course, that’s what I wanted, but that is the easy way out. It wouldn’t require any effort on my part.
As long as I didn’t put myself out there, I didn’t have to deal with the rejection that may come if this didn’t happen. I could still make the excuse that I was good enough, but I just wasn’t being given a chance. Putting myself out there would get rid of my excuses and force me to deal with that fact that I may, or may not be good enough… yet.
I did get an article published last year by Relevant Magazine. They put it on their homepage twice last year, and you can read it here.
Do you need to stop doing any of these three things? Can you think of anything else that is keeping your form doing more?
Let me know in the comments or send me a message!