The Secret Of My Success is WHERE???
Leadership expert John Maxwell says,
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily.
The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
The second part of that statement really caught my attention and I thought to myself, “Challenge accepted!” After all, who doesn’t want to live a successful life, right? But as I started to put his theory into practice, it didn’t take too long for me to figure out that I had no standard by which to measure MY success. I had to ask myself,
“What does success look like to ME?”
It seems everyone has their own definition of what success LOOKS like. Some measure it by material possessions, money in the bank, investments, influence, authority over projects and people, fame, beauty, build, status or class.
I believe the truest measure of success is defined by each person and is based on what they value most. In my life, it comes down to two things:
The overall atmosphere in my home (I want my home to be a refuge of peace for my family and anyone who comes into it).
The relationships in my life and how I engage each one everyday. These relationships affect my daily priorities, my daily productivity, and the measure of my peace when I lay my head on my pillow each night.
As I processed the first part of Mr. Maxwell’s quote:
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily.
The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
I focused on the words “daily” and “routine”! It became very clear that it is not enough to have a plan for time management if I don’t use the tools to help me manage my time. I had a planner but I wasn’t using it as a measure for my daily success.
Something had to change in the daily rhythm of my life if I truly wanted to experience success in these areas. So I started using my planner with discipline and the conviction that I am in charge of making these things my priorities - DAILY! It took awhile but here is how it began to shape up for me:
My relationship with God
I knew that order brings PEACE, so I planned to begin each day working on my relationship with Father God through my relationship with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. He is my Source for all that is good. I make it my #1 daily priority to read, study, and apply God’s Love Letter to me (the Holy Bible). I have learned that I can’t give what I don’t have - I wanted to give God’s peace, love, and goodness, so I needed to make time to be filled with those things!
As I gained discipline in this area, I found a greater clarity to develop a plan to order the details of my day: my health, household responsibilities, meal planning/prep, school lessons, etc.; and the foresight to pray for my family, appointments, and unforeseen opportunities.
My relationship with my husband, Scott
We made date nights to invest in our marriage a priority by scheduling and protecting that time each week! We began to compare calendars and share our commitments on a weekly basis so that we both knew our family and ministry obligations. The disappointments that come with being too busy and double-booked became less and less. I also began to know the conflicts and challenges that he would be facing and could pray with and for him during those times.
My relationship with each of my children
The responsibility to get my children to the things that mattered to them was important - keeping the family calendar on my personal planner reinforced the trust that my children had in me. They knew that they could depend on me to get them to music lessons, sports practices and competitions, music, dance, and drama rehearsals, birthday parties, youth group, Dr. appointments, and...you get the picture! These became opportunities for me to pray with and for my children and those people who touched their lives.
My relationships with others
The privilege of relationships with people outside of my home were and still are a necessary part of both my personal and my ministry life. There have been many times when I have received the blessing of a meal when sickness affected our family or when we had suffered a loss. There have also been times when I have been able to help another family for the same reasons. While I couldn’t plan for or schedule them, I could respond with prayers, hugs, and provisions to help someone else going through a hard time.
As I think about all of this, it is apparent to me that what we practice (sports, crafts, dance, music, drama, ministry, etc), and the way that we practice daily (faithfully, diligently, willingly), is only as good as why we practice (what we value enough to invest in).
What we practice will determine our level of commitment for a desired outcome.
The way that we practice will develop our character by investing more than just words.
But why we practice will drive the measure of our personal investment and sacrifice to be a success as we live out what we say we value most!
I have taken this to heart and applied it to my life for the last 27 years, and have designed a planner to help me create a rhythm for a life that I love! Over the last 3 years, I have worked on it and tweaked it to make it what I needed it to be!
It has been a true labor of love that I want to share with you as a tool to help you create a rhythm for a life that you'll love!
There is a 2023 Weekly Planner
And a 2023 Daily Planner (Inserts)
2023 is quickly approaching, and if you are ready to start creating a rhythm for a life that you'll love...
I would be honored to help you on that journey!
If you have questions about the planners or would like to place your order for your 2023 Lovesong Planning Pages, please email me (Brenda Schaefer) by going to :
brenda@livingalovesong.com
LOVESONG Planning Pages...for the rhythm of my life!