Time Management and the Empty Nest

Our son had flown the coop. Out the door. Gone to college.

I had worked myself into a corner at work by applying myself TOO much. All I did was work and come home.
I was miserable. A big old Texas Sourpuss.
And I found myself assigned to a project at work where I literally couldn’t imagine how I would get everything done. I really felt I needed to find some Time Management secrets to help me.

And then I found THE BOOK that changed my empty nest years.
I read the first chapters of the book and realized I didn’t have some Daytime suggestion book. It was a life changer book for me.

Do you know what makes you tick? What are your core values?

The first question in the book that literally took my breath away was the question “do you know what’s important to you?” The next premise was that those things (values) that are important to you should be some of the things you should be DOING each day. By doing those things daily, you would feel more at peace, purposed and complete.

Wow.

I needed to hear that because at that point in my life, I felt like a hamster on a wheel. No peace, grouchy, irritable and just running in circles.

Finding Your Purpose

~~~~What follows next is a sneak peek into a project I’m working on ~~~~

Would you like to KNOW that you have clearly defined your God-given purpose here on earth so that you could feel you are living each day according to what makes you tick?

Begin by reading each of these words below. They will evoke emotions as you read them. Some emotions will be stronger than others. But for now, you will just read through the list of words without making any judgement, but only to get familiar with the idea that there are so many possibilities for purpose in your life.

Step 1:

Scan quickly through the words and just allow your mind to be open to the importance and peace of knowing and finding the path to your life’s new direction.

__Accountability
__Achievement
__Advancement
__Adventure
__Authenticity
__Balance
__Being the Difference
__Belonging
__Change
__Charity
__Choice
__Comfort
__Community
__Compassion
__Competency
__Competition
__Connecting
__Contributing
__Creativity
__Decisiveness
__Efficient
__Emotional Security
__Enjoyment
__Excellence
__Excitement
__Expertise
__Faith
__Family
__Financial Security
__Firm Decisions
__Freedom
__Friendships
__Fun
__Gentleness
__Goodness
__Grace
__Growth
__Happiness
__Fun
__Health
__Helping
__Honest
__Independent
__Influential
__Inspiration
__Integrity
__Intellect
__Intention
__Intimacy
__Joy
__Knowledge
__Laughter
__Leadership
__Learning
__Leaving a Legacy
__Love
__Making a Difference
__Meekness
__Money
__Nature
__Order
__Originality
__Participation
__Passion
__Peace
__Philanthropy
__Play (recreation)
__Pleasure
__Potential
__Power
__Quiet
__Relationships
__Respecting others
__Responsiveness
__Self-Respect
__Servant Heart
__Sharing
__Solitude
__Sportsmanship
__Stability
__Success
__Taking Risks
__Teaching
__The Arts
__Time
__Tradition
__Travel
__Trust
__Uniqueness
__Wisdom
__Work with a Meaning

Step 2:

Now, read each word a second time. Determine in your mind what each value means to you. Using your first impression, place a check mark by all the words that mean something to your personally. Be sure to take time during this process. Also, don’t try to establish a ranking of the words. For now, you are just asking yourself the question “is this value important to me?”. There are no right or wrong answers. This first scan may have 20, 30 or 50 check marks!

Step 3:

Read through the list of words a third time. Now, you are going to start narrowing down your values by circling those that are the most important to you. Oh, and if I’ve left our a value that you hold important, then by all means add it!

Step 4:

You are now going to review your list for a fourth and final time. This is where you do have a final objective of narrowing your list to 12 Values. What values stir your heart? What values do you feel you must have in your life or you don’t feel “whole”. Step Four is something you may read through several times. I suggest you work with pencil as I had lots of erasing and changing my mind. To keep myself on track I would ask myself this question “If I were on an island, what values would keep me grounded”. In other words, what values can you not live without.

The interesting realization during this process is that you may find your HAVE been living without some of these values. But now that you are in a conscious state of really thinking about them you realize they are important to your life. This happens many times with Moms. As we mother hen our nest and take care of the family, many times things that are important to us get pushed to the back burner. That is why entering the Empty Nest is so exhilarating! You have an opportunity now to rewrite your life.

I will be truthful with you about this exercise. I worked on it for about a week! Yes, I did! It’s not that I was indecisive. It’s just that I knew I was at a point in my life that I needed to make changes and I wanted to be sure to make the changes that would make a difference in my life.

I would love to hear of this helps you to become more grounded, purpose and full of LIVING and LOVING your life!

Until next time, Hugs and feathers from the nest~~()~~

Kim Steadman is the COOP (Chief Online Operating Person) for The Re-Feathered Nest. A place of encouragement for moms entering the Empty Nest Zone who find they need to RePurpose and ReDesign their lives now that the kids have flown the coop. Kim can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheRefeatheredNest and on Google+ at +Kim.