The thought of being spread too thin has been on my mind a lot lately. I have many things on the go and there just isn’t enough hours in a day to keep them all in check. The evidence of that thought didn’t sink in until I screwed up one morning as I was leaving to go to work.
I have heard over and over that we shouldn’t do anything that doesn’t fuel us. We should always strive to spend every minute of our day doing things that inspire, challenge or grow us. I do live by that thought and I have cut a lot of things from my life that does not move me forward. If I don’t get life from what I do, then I just don’t do it. But as I found out last week; when I do too much growing, my priorities get skewed.
As I got settled into my office for a new day of work, I had received a text from my wife: “he wanted a hug”. What she meant by that message is that I had forgotten to give my son a hug before I walked out the door to start my day. He noticed and was very disappointed. I always give my son a hug before leaving for the day, it is what we do. We both need to have the reassurance of love before we embark on the daily grind. I felt awful. What have I done?
Somewhere along the line, I had allowed my busy-ness to get in the way of a daily ritual that means so much to my son and I. While everything I do in a day allows me to grow and become the best person I can, I allowed that drive to overshadow the reason why I do everything in the first place: my son! He is the reason I push myself to the brink of exhaustion every single day. I learn so I can teach him, I exercise so I can move him and I create so I can inspire him.
While I may be spread too thin and am pushing myself a little too hard these days, I must remind myself every morning that none of this will matter if I was not able to hug my son and share that moment in time together. In the end, I realized that I had my priorities messed up! My fuel to grow does not come from the things that I do, my fuel only comes from the people that I love. So when I am looking for things to lighten a load of my busy day; forgetting the morning hug with my son should never be missed.