It’s a conversation we tend to save for January, but maybe we need it now more than ever. If you feel busy but not productive or rushed to get somewhere but never arriving, this episode is for you. It’s time to discern what is essential.
Links + Resources From This Episode:
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction by Adam McHugh
- A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily P. Freeman
- Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
“Are you working hard towards something, only to realize that it’s not quite right anymore?… Have you been tricked into believing that working harder will finally make things better?…What is essential today?…” Your questions really cut to my heart issues today. Thank you for your calm words of wisdom, Emily. In my season of decisions and crazy life, you are a breath of fresh air. Thank you for inspiring me to stop running like a stooped-over crazy person and stop and breathe and just…smile. Thank you for following God’s assignment – we the listeners and readers are the beneficiaries of that assignment…and on behalf of all of us…thank you!
Everything she just said!!! 😄❤
Hi Emily,I haven’t listened to this one yet,cause I just got it from your website. I didn’t directly get your email today,I started looking for it around 3 that’s when you usually send it.
yes this is very good informations.
Emily, you are such a breath of calm and joy. Ever since I read Grace for the Good Girl 6 years ago, your words have been a “place for my soul to breathe”. You seem to speak from a place of wholeness and that gives your words such weight. Thank you for being a true example of running one’s own race, regardless of the races people are running beside us.
I love the idea of a Thinking Day! I think I really need one. I have quit 1 thing already this year and it removed a great weight from my shoulders, as well as opened up some free time. What I said “yes” to for that open time is to do my family tree research. I am so enjoying this! This week our minister in his sermon said don’t waste your time on genealogies, spend time with living people. How dare he rain on my hard won free time! I am being stubborn and continuing on my family tree research with glee. It certainly is true that one person’s “yes” is another person’s waste of time. Vive la difference!
I have loved listening to your podcasts….Each one has been side by side with what I’m studying in the bible….This week though I have been struggling,not focusing,not taking anything in UNTIL I listened to podcast #13…..The light bulb moment..A direct hit by the holy spirit.
Thank you dear Emily…For your purpose xxxxx
Hi Emily,I did listen to this one and I Love the music too. The part about enough stuff, really good! I’m going to order the book a million little ways too. Thank you for doing the recording. Can’t wait till next Tuesday!
“That is one thing about an intentional “no.” It can open the door for a live giving yes. ” I can relate to this whole story. As I am a mom who gave up my career to homeschool my children. But after 6 years of homeschooling, and 10 years at home, I have been saying a slow “no” to homeschooling and a slow “yes” to my other vocation of being a counselor. It can be so hard to change directions when God is asking you to let go.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It takes strength and courage to say “yes” to where your soul and God are pulling you. Thank you for saying yes and for sharing your yes!
The way I feel after listening to the podcast suggests that the time to sit and listen to what my life is trying to tell me is now.
Thank you so very much.
So I breezed through this episode thinking, “I don’t need to quit anything,” even though the thing I needed to quit was tapping me annoyingly on the shoulder like a kid with something urgent to report. Everything you said stuck with me and just needed to marinate in my soul for a week or so until it became very obvious that, yes, I did need to quit that thing. I was holding on to it because I felt like I should, because I was hanging too much of my identity on it, and on the surface it seemed like a good thing that I did enjoy. But once I started to parse out this commitment, I realized it was a huge source of chronic anxiety in my life on multiple levels. After I made the difficult decision to let it go, I felt such a wave of relief wash over me. That sense of relief is ten times better than the good feelings I ever got from doing the thing in the first place!! Thanks for being true to the message God laid on your heart for this particular episode!
Have you been tricked into believing that doing more and working harder will lead to finally having enough? Could it be possible you already have enough? Emily, I saved this podcast from Oct 2017 when it hit my inbox. I have literally been “too busy” to read it. I did not have “enough time” to sit down and thoughtfully listen…today. 12/26 I finally sat down with the intent to listen. It could not (as usual for your podcasts) have come at a better time. I have been on the fence about saying no to something. This was confirmation that yes, it is time, to get better at saying no…I want to hug this entire podcast 🙂 thank you for sharing the thoughts in your head and heart. May God Bless you.
I don’t have a hard time saying no. But that doesn’t mean I stay focused on what truly matters each day. My recent goal is to make sure I really listen to my children, meet them where they are and point them toward God. That is what is the next (important!) right thing.
this had me with tears streaming down my face on my run this morning. my goodness! so much truth here! so many things that i needed to hear today. simply beautiful.
I have read some of your books. I love them. I am writing from Northwest England where at the moment it is snowing. I am a missionary, just returned from the United States where my mother has terminal cancer. We just spent 2 1/2 months there with my parents (and part of the time with our adult children) and I am asking God to clearly show me when to next visit my parents. While I was there, I developed high BP and the doctor said aerobic exercise would help. I used a stationary exercise bike and the only way I could do 30 minutes was to listen to something interesting. That’s when I started listening to your podcast. 🙂 after listening to a few, I decided to go to the beginning and am thoroughly enjoying them. I wanted to say thank you. You minister to my soul. Or maybe I should say God ministers through you. Thank you for your words of wisdom, for sharing your insights with us. I find it very calming. Just one little suggestion… The beginning and ending music is not as calming as your voice. Personally (and you can completely ignore this obviously :-)) I would love music that is a little bit calmer and more relaxing and quieter and slower. That’s only a tiny suggestion . The content is great. God bless you. God has impressed upon me that I need to thoroughly rest in this time, a semi- sabbatical, and then to go in the strength of that rest to be with my mother in the end season. You are part of my rest.