Episode 898 Life is Messy
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 898 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Jennifer Luzzato: [00:00:08] I'm Jennifer Lozado, author of inheriting chaos with compassion. I encourage you to find the ways to be loving with your family both before and after you pass. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.
[00:00:26]Scott Maderer: [00:00:26] and the truth is sometimes we feel like we have no control at all. When in reality we've always got something. We've always got little things. We've always got part of the system. We've always got something that we control. We've always got some action that we can take. It may not be a pleasant action.
[00:00:51] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, [00:01:00] 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.
[00:01:17]in today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about why we all seem to notice that life is. I share why this can affect our time and how we view it. And I share why we have to focus on being intentional. If we want to control the message. As we talk about stewarding your time.
[00:01:38] Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is we use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show. Just that quick.
[00:01:56] If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from [00:02:00] Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. Someone told me today, they were talking about things and they said, you know what? At the end of the day, life is just a mess. They were talking about their particular life. They have some things going on and some things that are causing a lot of strain and a lot of stress and a lot of chaos, but they use that expression.
[00:02:26] Life is just a mess. And the truth is I think all of us from time to time, Mike notice that life is messy. No matter how much you plan, no matter how much you work, no matter how much you do, no matter how many relationships you have, no matter how much money you have in the bank, no matter how much time you have on the clock, there's always a certain degree to which you simply cannot control what happens in your life.
[00:02:57] There simply comes times and days [00:03:00] where life gets messy, things happen that you never wanted to happen. Things happen that show you that you have little or no control over a particular situation. Stuff happens that maybe it's a health problem. Maybe it's something else that's completely outside of your control.
[00:03:18] And sure having things done well, having an emergency fund, having ample time, having a job, having good relationships, having privilege around you or benefits around you, all of these things are helpful and they help you navigate the chaos when things get messy, but they don't necessarily prevent the mess.
[00:03:41] They simply make dealing with the mess a little easier. And the truth is when you recognize this, you recognize that this affects how we deal with our time, because part of it is that mindset. Do you think of your life as [00:04:00] messy and out of control? Do you think of your life as something that you have no control over?
[00:04:07] Or do you recognize that yes, there are messes in your life? Yes. There are things that come at you from outside. But you have a degree of control over those things. You have a degree of control at the very least. You have the control over your response to the mess. You have your control over your attitude, around the message.
[00:04:30] And that degree of control affects our ability to do things with our time. It affects how productive we are, because when you begin to think of your life is out of control and a mess that you can't do anything about. Then you've got an excuse. You simply don't have to do anything about it because after all, you can't do anything about it.
[00:04:52]But the truth is you can. The truth is that you can focus on [00:05:00] intentionality. You can focus on looking at the language that you use, looking at the systems and processes that you've put in place. You can look at thinking about what is it that I do have control over. If nothing else I have control over my attitude, and I will control that.
[00:05:19] Thing, fully and completely. If nothing else, I have control over this one little part. See, what is it that you do have control over versus what is it that you don't have control over? Yeah. You can't control things that come at you from outside. Yes. We all have situations that are completely outside of our control, but within those situations, there are still components that you can control.
[00:05:48] And you have to intentionally focus on those components. Maybe you've heard that expression about I'm going to control the things that I can and be unstressed [00:06:00] about the things that I can't, I'm going to focus on. Only those things that I have control over. And the truth is sometimes we feel like we have no control at all.
[00:06:11] When in reality we've always got something. We've always got little things. We've always got part of the system. We've always got something that we control. We've always got some action that we can take. It may not be a pleasant action. It may not fully solve the problem, but it still is something. We can do, we can intentionally do something.
[00:06:40] We can think about the words we use. We can think about the attitudes that we have. We can think about the feelings that we have in our response to those actions. And then we can begin to take action to control the things that we can control. Yeah, I've got clients sometimes that are facing [00:07:00] situations that seem overwhelming.
[00:07:02] They seem beyond any human being's ability to control. And because of that, they often feel that their life is a complete and total mess. And when they do that, what do we do about it? What do we do to think through. What do we do to take control of the things that we can control? That is the real key.
[00:07:34] That is the real thing that needs to happen so that we begin to move forward. And despite the fact that life is messy, we begin to take action to make our life and the ability of us to use time and to do the things that we're called to do a little better today. Than they were yesterday. Thanks for listening.
[00:07:58]Thanks so much [00:08:00] for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and 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 call. 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 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips, and that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time.
[00:08:43] Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .