“Orient” – to adjust or tailor (something) to specified circumstances or needs.
I love Micah’s recent post. It’s very true that life is full of busyness and we must take some time to renew and refresh, or burnout will be right around the corner (plug, for a podcast that we recently posted on this topic).
Since we recently took a break from posting articles, it would be wise to speak to some of these ideas. Yes, taking time off for rest and renewal is important. Yes, we need to guard against doing and doing without looking at our priorities. We will consistently post about these types of issues, since it’s what our blog and podcast are based on – learning the principles of personal development so you can become the best version of yourself.
I would like to speak to another aspect of taking a break, and that is the principle of reorienting.
It’s normal – expected, actually – in our society today to fall into a rut, to do the same thing day after day, week after week, until one day we wake up and realize that it’s Christmas again (where did October go??). Because it’s so normal, the majority of people around us fall into the rut. And because everyone around us tends to be in the same rut, it’s very difficult to notice that it’s happening.
As D.L. Moody says, “The best way to show that a stick is crooked is not to argue about it or to spend time denouncing it, but to lay a straight stick alongside it.” Oftentimes the best way to wake up and realize you’re in a rut is to intentionally place yourself around someone who isn’t in a rut. Once you see their schedule, their lifestyle, their lack of stress, you can say to yourself, “Hey, it’s time to wake up! It’s time to reorient.”
The idea of reorienting means that we re-orient (shocking, I know). To “orient” means to adjust to specified needs, so to reorient would be to step back and re-adjust, based on our current specified needs. If we don’t reorient our lives and our schedules from time to time, we are actually adjusted incorrectly – we’re spending time towards a target that isn’t best for us. Perhaps the situations around us have changed, but our schedule is still oriented towards the old goal. To reorient takes a couple of steps that I will touch on briefly.
First, we need to wake up to the fact that we need reorientation. Being stuck in a rut has been compared to walking through a grave with both ends knocked out. We must realize/recognize that the current path we are on isn’t going to get us where we’re wanting to go. Reading blogs like this one or listening to audios and podcasts are a great way to “wake up to ourselves,” as the Bible talks about.
Next, we must define where our time and our efforts are currently being spent, and be willing to modify. For me, this took an honest view of my schedule – where is my time being spent, and towards what purposes? I had a couple of commitments that I needed to finish, and then drop. I had a couple of wasted evenings every week that should have been more productive (even if I spent them on intentional renewal of my spirit). When I recognized the holes in my current orientation, I had to be willing to change them – to reorient.
This next step is the one that many people miss… before I decide where my time and efforts should be spent, I must view my life through the “filter” of my current life goals. Many times, during the reorienting step, people tend to just modify arbitrarily – they’ll change where their time is being spent, even if the new activities aren’t conducive to achieving their goals. They feel better because something has changed, but those activities will likely lead to frustration because they’re not directionally correct. The goal here is to figure out where you’re going, and decide what are the next steps to get move you in the direction of your goals.
Then once you’re looking at where you want to go, you can decide on some new courses of action. Would your Thursday night be better spent editing your book or your speech? Would your Tuesday night be better spent with your wife on a date night? Would your Sunday afternoon be better spent with your kids around a campfire? The action steps in your reorientation have to do with the goals you have set up for yourself. It’s often said that once you know where you’re going, the decision making process is much easier.
A couple of quick recommendations to end this blog:
- Keep a calendar of the things you have done (past tense) – Everyone does need a calendar of things that are coming (future tense), but we should also keep track of things that we did. This is the only way to track if we have been using our time wisely. And if you say that you don’t have time for this, then that’s the reason you must make time for it. (Nothing changes until something changes)
- Set aside 2 hours a week for planning – You’re already on a schedule. If you’re not planning it, it’s a poor schedule. Abraham Lincoln is credited in saying, “If you give me 6 hours to cut down a tree, I’m going to spend the first 4 hours sharpening my axe.” The reason many people live in mental chaos is because they don’t intentionally set aside time to reorient their next week. Take this time.
- No excuses – just do it. Don’t be problem-focused (“Here are the reasons I can’t…”), be solution-focused (“Here are the reasons I have to…”)
Chris Craft
The Soapbox 