Episode 833 Finding Time for Joy
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 833 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:07] Heather Heuman: [00:00:07] I'm Heather Heuman from sweet tea, social marketing. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
[00:00:23] Having the ability to reach others is key. And one way to be inspired to do just that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.
[00:00:37]Scott Maderer: [00:00:37] this is joy is not something that we actually can't find. It's just something that we learn to stop looking for. And as we stop looking for it, it stops showing up. But you can take just five minutes a day or just 10 minutes a day and spend that doing a [00:01:00] gratitude journal. Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:01:06] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent. And your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:27]In today's episode about impacting the world by stewarding your time. I talk with you about how joy can be something you find. I share how you can make time to find joy in your life every day, even if times are tough. And I also share some tips on creating time for joy. As we talk about stewarding your time.
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[00:02:15]As we talked about yesterday, when we were talking about happiness versus joy from a biblical perspective today, I wanted to talk a little bit about time and joy. Know, one of the interesting things is that we often, when it comes to happiness, we feel like it just happens to us. Certain events happen.
[00:02:35] And now we've declared that we're happy a different event happens and we're unhappy. But again, joy is something deeper than that. It's something that I believe you actually heck have to actively go about trying to make the time. In your life to be able to feel it, to be able to be connected to it. It doesn't just happen by accident.
[00:03:00] [00:02:59] Joy instead is something that you find by actively seeking it out, but it can often start in small movements and small moments of time. It doesn't have to be created in this large, massive change. This isn't about uprooting your entire life and reprogramming it instead. It's about helping you to think small and focus on specific things that you can do each day to find joy.
[00:03:33]It's interesting, but the more you train your spell self to begin to spot joy, the more you'll see it. If you are able to, let's say you have some control over your schedule and your time. Can you align errands and other events with small little things that give you a moment of joy or happiness?
[00:03:56] Like maybe as well as going to the store, you can swing by the [00:04:00] dog park and just watch the dogs play. Or you can go by a museum or a gallery or a park and spend just a few moments. In something that is different than your day to day place, the day to day place that you spend every day by breaking up your day routine, you can begin to notice the things that you've tended to ignore that are things that you it'd be grateful and joyous about.
[00:04:28] You can also create a joy budget, a certain amount of money that you can spend. And we'll talk more about that on Friday's episode. But what else can we do from a time perspective? Know, the interesting thing is we often let the future Rob us of the moments of joy that we have today. Staying focused on the present as opposed to anything that's coming down the pike since can sometimes help us notice the moments in the present to be joyful for.
[00:04:59] Think [00:05:00] about how you. Have all of your senses engaged in the moment. Don't just notice yourself sitting on a zoom meeting, but think about how the floor feels under your feet, how the air conditioning feels on your cheek. If you get in touch with the feelings of your body, it often helps you identify feelings of spirit as well.
[00:05:21] I've already talked about changing up your routine in past episodes, instead of doing the same thing every single day, find small shifts that you can do in your daily routine. Make sure that you're also taking time out for spiritual development and for mindfulness, for meditation, prayer, and these sorts of things.
[00:05:42] I've talked before about keeping a gratitude journal. You can keep a joy journal as well. You can also find joy in sometimes doing something silly or unusual or something that you would never do before. Challenge yourself to do something out of the [00:06:00] ordinary. One of the things that I do that is out of the ordinary for me, but it is something that I find joy in is challenging myself to start up conversations with random strangers.
[00:06:11] So back whenever I could go to a Starbucks, I would challenge myself to start up a conversation with the person in line in front or behind me in the Starbucks. And it's interesting because I've had some of the most interest, the conversations that I started. Just randomly with a stranger in an airport or in a very various Starbucks or other restaurants in places.
[00:06:36] Look at your task list and try to find two or three or five or 10 small little things that you can get done. Sometimes crossing a large number of small events off helps us feel that deeper connection to joy. See, the truth is joy is not. Something that we actually can't find. It's just [00:07:00] something that we learn to stop looking for.
[00:07:03] And as we stop looking for it, it stops showing up. But you can take just five minutes a day or just 10 minutes a day and spend that doing a gratitude journal, spin that outside, or breaking up your routine or doing something silly or challenging that you've never done before. And even just five minutes a day, each and every day, we'll reprogram you to begin to pay attention to the things around you in a different way.
[00:07:35] And as you do that, you will get a deeper connection to what brings you joy. And you will begin to see it instead of ignoring it. But you've got to make it a habit. You've got to do it as a routine, something that you do each and every day. Thanks for listening.
[00:07:53]thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and [00:08:00] listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting four four, two, two, two time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.
[00:08:38] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .