We didn’t go out to eat much when I was young. I grew up out in the piney woods of southeast Texas, and there weren’t many restaurant choices in my tiny hometown. But, when my mother would go “into town” for shopping, we would often have lunch at a buffet restaurant called Luby’s. It was always a treat! As a kid who was not given a choice about what we ate for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, getting to have my own tray and select whatever I wanted from a seemingly endless supply of options was like stepping into food heaven.
Like everyone in my family, I had my favorites. Crispy fried fish, salad with my favorite dressing, and mashed potatoes and cream gravy were always piled high on my tray, but my real favorites were always down at the very end of the line—huge, fluffy, buttery biscuits; fruit Jello; and a big slice of coconut cream pie! Sometimes though, I would realize I didn’t have room for my favorites because I had already put too many things on my tray.
Have you ever done that? Do you, like me, put too many things on your plate only to run out of room for the things you most want or enjoy? I do it all the time. This year I’m making a concerted effort not to load up my mornings with too many things I could do without leaving plenty of room for the things I most enjoy or want to do. Reading, journaling, self-reflection, exercising, grounding, stretching, sauna sessions—these are things that I enjoy and want to do, but often in the past year, I found my daily plate overflowed so there was no room left for them. I found that while I had no problem filling my tray with a long to-do list, I needed a “not to do” or “stop doing” list to make sure I was happy with the contents of my tray at the end of the day.
This year, I’ve made a commitment to myself to leave my phone in another room at night so I will not be tempted to get on it first thing in the morning. I’m turning my laptop off completely at night so it will not be so easy to check my emails and social media before I’ve put my most important personal items on my tray—the things that ensure and encourage my physical, emotional, and mental health and the tasks that fill my bucket so that I can pour out my promise to my clients, my family, and the world.
This week, think about how you go about filling up the tray from the buffet of your daily life. Ask yourself if you leave and prepare room for the things you most enjoy and are most important to you.
In other words, start at the opposite end of the buffet and get the dessert on your tray first.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
– Stephen Covey
