Options

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With just about everything we do we have options. Options on how to do the task at hand, but also options whether we want to engage in it at all; if we want to opt in or rather opt out…

Which option we choose often has less to do with what needs to be done in a ‘timely manner’, than it has with our value system. How much importance we put on ‘doing it right’, on what we consider a ‘timely manner’, and yes, whether we feel it is something we want to spend our time and energy on at all!

On the surface it sounds so simple; we just perform the tasks that need to be taken care of. The things that are our part in making (family)life work. And if no-one else feels they need to do one thing or another, chances are we will be picking up the slack.

Not only is that what is expected of us, it even is what we expect out of life. Expectations we probably were raised with. And these expectations tell us that while we have options on how to do our chores, we better make sure they get done because no-one else will do them for us.
Or as they say in my native language “Only the sun rises for free”, meaning that we will have to work for everything else in life.

So whenever we get fed up with life being too busy, not leaving us any much needed time to spend on our own, personal needs and desires ~ when we feel that longing for newness in our lives ~ chances are we will choose a different option on how to do things, rather than realizing that we also have the alternative to opt out. That we will do the same things we have always done in a new way, rather than evaluating if these things are truly important enough for us to spend our time and energy on, on a regular basis.

One of the questions we can ask ourselves is what would happen if we didn’t do it. Would our entire world fall apart? Or would the fact that it hasn’t been done go by unnoticed? Or would, without missing a beat, someone else pick up where we left off?

With all the options we are presented with in life, perhaps it is time to pay attention to that most important option to do the things we truly want to do, rather than those things we feel we have to do. And chances are, as soon as we choose to opt in or opt out, everything else will fall into place.
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