Family comes first
For the past two days I intended to sit down and write this blog post. It takes a lot of time to create content that (I hope) has value for the visitors to the blog. I have made a commitment, as part of my goal to help a million people, to blog consistently (4-5 posts a week). I made that commitment to myself. I hadn’t shared that with anyone but Jason Stambaugh, the web master who built this site for me.
This means that I take this seriously. I have a personal rule that if I say I will do something I will do it (with the occasional exception for an unusual circumstance or drastic event). This means I put pressure on myself to do the things I commit to…I don’t worry about outside pressures, if I do what I commit to in life, there really aren’t any.
Anyway, I am in the middle of many things at the moment. Business in general is very busy with lots of new inspired people to help and lots more people who we are helping to overcome physical issues:-) I am also developing content for multiple things and running and prepping various seminars/webinars. So, getting a head start on the blog for today by doing it over the weekend would have been ideal. However, my daughter Allie came home from college on Saturday night, and any time she wanted to hang out and talk, or do something (like play Pitch) came before the blog. I thought I might get to it last night, but then the NBA finals was on and my son Brett was watching it so I watched it with him (I wanted to watch it anyway) instead of write the blog. This morning Allie wanted to go to the gym with me and then we ate breakfast together…so here I am at 9AM writing my blog for today. You might not realize I am late, because I didn’t schedule this blog appointment with you.
I put pressure on myself to do the things I commit to…I don’t worry about outside pressures, if I do what I commit to in life, there really aren’t any.
But in this case, I am late for myself. I make no excuse. I made a choice based on my priorities. Family comes first. I do my best with this. I don’t always get it right. Sometimes I put other things before my family out of skewed perspective, perceived need, or just plain missing the boat. This time I got it right. But I still kept my commitment. I still delivered the blog. This is the second point of this. You have to keep your commitments to yourself. Maybe it means you stay up later. Maybe it means you get up earlier. But you have to keep the commitments to yourself, or you will over time lose respect for yourself….and guess who will suffer most if you lose respect for yourself? Yes…your family will feel it most.
It is a fine line and one that is challenging to navigate but we must keep our family as the top priority and at the same time we must keep the commitments we make to ourselves.
