1 Question You Must Ask Your Teens Weekly
This is a guest post from Kelly Lippenholz. She is the Family Ministry Project Coordinator at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland. She...
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| Courtesy of basykes/Creative Commons License |
I enjoy certain house projects because the satisfaction you can get from the finished project is amazing. Recently, I started painting the hallway of my house, so far everything is going smoothly because, all I have left is the trim and a few of the hallway doors. While, all I need are a few hours to finish the project, I have found putting on the finishing touches a little harder than usual. In order to get the painting done, I just need to schedule in a few hours and complete the project.
I have a feeling that I’m not alone on this. I’m willing to bet that if I gave you a pen, piece of paper and a few minutes you could fill up the sheet with projects and tasks you need to tackle. Some of them are ideas that have hit a wall, projects cut short by time constraints or for reasons we just can’t explain. Chances are you’ve started more projects than you could ever finish.
Why is that? Why do we keep creating ideas and initiatives only to find ourselves give up? Is it because we’re lazy?
Most times we walk away from an idea or project because we are:
- Distracted – If you are distracted it could be due to two reasons:
- Your Environment: You’re desk is cluttered, the lighting in your office stinks, the chair you are sitting in is painful, the music from your coworker’s earphones is leaking and the list continues. If your environment isn’t comfortable and engaging you’ll get distracted. Clean it or change it up, just try something new to get the creativity flowing.
- Too Much On Your Plate: You attempt to multitask; however, you haven’t discovered your limit. We are designed to work on a few things at once; however, that doesn’t mean we can do everything. What you need to do is refocus and prioritize what’s on your plate. Knock it out in order of importance and urgency.
- Not Interested – If your heart isn’t behind something you will have a hard time really bearing down to get it done. We know if it’s a project that doesn’t have to get done, we are okay to shelve it or kill it. But, what if it’s something we have to do? When this happens it’s important to pace yourself by making small and achievable goals. Or, another approach you can take is to delegate what you don’t have to do, and focus only on what’s necessary for your role.
- Lack Of Confidence – If you don’t believe in yourself, then how will you achieve anything? God designed you with gifts and talents. He puts you in the places where He knows you can succeed. If you lack confidence in yourself, find people who will give you the hope and insight you need to follow through on a project. When we are down on ourselves it’s also important to revisit our relationship with Christ. A lack of confidence in ourselves is linked to a lack of confidence in a God who is almighty and powerful. Work on your relationship with God and you’ll find your relationship with the project improved.
There are going to be those projects that are hard to complete, that’s why we just need to be persistent and patient. If we can embrace the fact that we will be distracted, we can get on top of them before they derail us. Being patient with creative blocks and persistent with obstacles will guide us closer to completion.
How do you navigate the distractions?