How awesome does it feel to consider the idea of “Breaking Busy”? That’s just what Alli Worthington set out to do in her newest book that releases on January 26. Breaking Busy is a breath of fresh air that gives women permission…a nudge in fact…to break busy. What would it look like if you lived the life that God truly intended for you to live…with all the fullness He intended? How often have we proclaimed “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” “I can add just one more thing” “I’d rather not, but I’ll do it since no one else probably will”? Those are all behaviors that cause us to miss God’s best for our lives as we strive so hard to fulfill everyone else’s expectations for our life. Break busy and join a group of ladies that are committed to God’s best and to holding one another accountable to stewarding this once chance that we get at life. And that’s what it’s intended to be…a life. Breaking Busy is a great read that will leave you feeling like you had a great lunch with a friend on a patio. You won’t want to put this down!
I highlighted several things while reading and have posted my notes below…
- Yet even though it’s easy to see the correlation between our own capacity and that of a phone, we seem to lack the ability to find a reasonable rhythm, a sweet spot if you will, in a world of crazy busy. All this busyness, in the end, keep us just out of reach of the life we were created to live.
- Embracing our personal capacity allows us to live out our calling.
- Taking care of yourself may seem selfish, but self-care is one of the most other-centered choices you can make in your life.
- Staying connected to God is what keeps me operating within my capacity and what helps me understand that God made me with limitations on purpose. Having a limited capacity is not a flaw in my character. It is by glorious design and for an incredible purpose: to realize my need for him.
- Stepping back to evaluate why we are doing what we are doing gives us insights into whether or not we need to keep doing them.
- Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
- What are thing things that you might need to discard to regain some capacity in your life?
- What does living in your sweet spot look like?
- 1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
- If we are going to start breaking busy, we have to focus on the relationships that fill our soul and not just the ones that fill our calendar.
- Each of us is called to do something great in this world. Discovering the place where we get to do what we were created to do is a great gift.
- We have to break the cycle of busy in our lives if we are going to have enough room to discover our destiny.
- As we start breaking busy in our lives, our purpose begins to shine brightly and clearly.
- How to Identify and Fuel your Passion
What activities have you loved since childhood?
Discover what you love
What tugs at your heart?
If money were no object, what would you do for free?
What energizes you?
What is something everyone says you are good at? - God sometimes calls us to quit things that are good in exchange for his plans that are greater.
- God sometimes calls us to edit out something good in our lives to make room for something great.
- Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.
- God’s no always prepares us for his perfect yes.
- I discovered that gratitude is the antidote to anxiety.
- Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
- We can focus on “whatever is true” until truth replaces our negative thoughts.
- The difference between misery and happiness for me came not through circumstances, but through the quality of my thoughts. I needed to make a decision to walk in faith and trust God with my thoughts, not just my outward behavior.
- Identify a destructive thought pattern that plagues you.
- Every day think of three things and people you are grateful for. Write them down, and if possible, tell those people you are grateful for them.
- Just because we live in a world of seemingly endless expectations doesn’t mean we have to live up to them.
- I was a slave to the tyranny of the urgent, and urgency was a ruthless taskmaster.
- The truth is that whether you are the manager of a home, CEO of a company, or a busy entrepreneur, your ability to be successful is equal to your physical and mental health and your ability to manage your time and energy.
- Living life by the tyranny of the urgent is often just a case of jumbled priorities.
- “Choose discomfort over resentment.” Choose the momentary awkwardness of saying no (with love) and disappointing someone rather than saying yes and resenting it later.
- Like it or not, every single decision we make takes us down the road closer to the destination that is our future.
- When evaluating a choice, it is important to think about the future you. What is your goal in this situation? What do you hope to accomplish?
- Too often our inability to communicate well causes us to become busy doing unnecessary things.
- Prayer is one of the best ways to grow in love for others.
- The lie of shame serves one purpose: to distract us and keep us busy trying to prove to the world that we are perfect.
- Keeping us busy trying to prove our worth is the easiest way to keep us from the life God created us to live.
- Ephesians 6:11 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
- Battle Plan: Rest, Ready Yourself, Relate, Recall, Remember, and Realize