haakon

Ok, I have a goal to simplify, yet am complicating my life with yet another web page to work on, read, etc. Why?

Time is the one thing that puts us all on equal footing. You and I have the same 24 hours, day in, day out. We may not have the same number of years, but that is arguably out of our hands as well. You and I probably do not have the same footing in regards to gifts, skills, finances, relationships etc. In some I am weaker, in some I am stronger. But time is a different matter. I cannot pay more and get more time than you. I cannot beg, borrow, steal, and obtain more time. (Of course, one can pay to have someone else clean the house…)

I believe the way I spend my time demonstrates my values; what I find important, what I think is meaningful. Currently there is a large disconnect between my values lived out (the way I spend my time), and what I would profess as my values. So, this goal could be written more explicitly as:

“Spend more time on the important stuff, lest time on the fluff.”

I spend too much of my free time filling up my time. How absurd! I complain about not having enough time and then spend what time I do have on meaningless things (surfing the web, playing free-cell, you know the drill). So, I would like to make a concerted effort to spend time just plain not doing anything. You can call it praying if you like.

I suspect that I fill up my time out of fear. If I sit still and be quiet, I might start to wonder what the meaning of my life is. If I contemplate my life, I might start to wonder what God wants me to do with it. If I really simplify and spend my time on the important things, I will be putting my beliefs to the test. Scary.

Of, relating to, governed by, or acquired through practice or action, rather than theory, speculation, or ideals: gained practical experience of sailing as a deck hand.

Often when I hear the word practical, I think ‘down to earth’, nitty gritty stuff like ‘work hard’, ‘save money’, ‘eat healthy’.

At the core, I think being practical is practicing what you believe. It is putting the important stuff first, filtering out the silly fluff.

For many, this does mean the things above – working hard, saving money, etc, etc. That is because many peoples goals are to live well and comfortably, earn a reasonable amount of money, be able to own what they want and so on. What is important to realise is that being practical may not be the same for me and you.

It is not unusual for people to tell a dreamer to ‘be practical’. This is a reasonable thing to say if by it one means ‘practice or bring about what you are dreaming of’. This is less a reasonable thing to say if what you really mean is ‘what is important to you is not really important’. Often when we say ‘be practical’, we are effectively saying ‘think like me’, or ‘what I believe is important is the important thing’. This may sound somewhat relativistic. It is. We all have different things that we believe to be important or worth practicing. Of course, I do know what I believe to be ‘practical’, but that is another topic.

So, soapbox aside, I think I am far too practical in the attention I pay to nitty gritty stuff like working hard, saving money, and not practical enough with what I believe – love God, love people around you. Hence, this goal. I wish to become more practical.