Something happened. Something lifechanging occurred. Something devastating broke your heart. You know, we all have had something. We lose someone we love unexpectedly, someone faces a type of crisis (life/health/etc), job loss, something you never thought would ever happen to you, it’s enough to jolt you.
You probably can recall a few of your own, or you have heard others speak of:
“After going through this I will never be the same.”
“I will put more heart and sincerity into things.”
“I’m going to care more, spend more time…..”
Fill in your blank.
What are you waiting for?
Do these circumstances really change us? Do they get inside of us? I titled this blog post ‘Evaporated Intentions’ because I feel like we are like water boiling in a kettle when we go through the heat of the circumstance. Then the water is poured into the mug. It’s still heated, we are still destined. Then it sits there for a while and the water isn’t so hot. The desire to make this miraculous change has suddenly stopped. Then you look into the cup and realize the water evaporated into the air.
Maybe for a while we start calling someone everyday to check on them that is alone. Then it becomes every other day, then once a week, once a month, and before long it’s twice a year. Maybe it’s going to see someone that we say plays an important role in our lives. We can’t imagine losing that person, and feel regret for not making more time to spend with them. We used to see them twice a year, then we are determined that we will see them twice a month. We start out great with it, then as time goes on it becomes of less importance to make it happen.
Many times we face a health scare and we know exactly what we need to do to prevent it from happening again (or lessen the chances of). We get out of the hospital and we almost do it because we are scared of what we went through, and don’t want to experience it again. We slowly start allowing old habits in, and before long we’ve allowed what we healed from to come back into our lives. What happens to replace this? When our lives become derailed we suddenly look at what is most important to us in a different manner. Or maybe we ‘think’ we’ve rediscovered what’s important. But how important is it? Are these times really life changing?
Since I have truly started my journey as a blogger/author/screenwriter I have come to find that there are more distractions that I thought were imaginable. Then when you look at all you can have available to you…there are all of the quotes, motivational speakers, calendars/planners, seminars, videos to watch online, and coaches for everything imaginable.
A lot of the ‘motivations’ we tend to fall to are actually helping us waste more time and keeping us from what we are setting out to accomplish.
Are you set out to do it?
Are you steadfast?
Are you intentionally making it happen?
You lost a close friend. You will show the friends you have remaining how much you care. You will start telling them you love them. Do you? That person you lost, what would you do differently if you could? Don’t lose sight of that. Perhaps we try to put it out of our mind because we regret what we wish could’ve been differently. Maybe part of healing isn’t ‘letting go’ of what we lost or hurt from, but actually allowing it to stay with us more. We need to continue to allow it to impact us so that we act on our intentions.
How many years has it been since you said ‘things will be different?’
We also often use these times of the deep hard moments to get our inspiration for how we can make the deepest impact in our world, or in someone’s life. We allow it to cause reality to settle in. Time is short. None of us know how long we have here. If we were created for something greater, if we don’t want the harder lifechanging times to fade away in vain, then rise above it and don’t fall into wasted intentions.
What stops us? We have to face it – that this isn’t working. Our intentions are great for a time, but they slowly evaporate and we don’t even have the woulda, coulda, shoulda left. It’s like we never said it. Maybe the impact wasn’t as deep into the heart as we thought. We get so used to saying things, but we don’t act.
Maybe don’t say it at all. Maybe we should take a new approach. Maybe we should allow it to affect us internally, so that we later make it an outward change. Stop promising people what we will do more of, and just do. Just go. Just show them instead. Plans and promises are too easily broken. Call more, write more, stop doing this as much because it’s not good for me, start doing more of that because it’s healthier, stop thinking about it so much. Don’t act like it’s optional.
Most recently in our lives we’ve faced Covid. When it started you heard a lot of people talk about what they would do when they weren’t confined inside their homes. They repositioned their priority list.
If you think about the people you lost in your life…how many of them had intended to do something. Maybe they always wanted to try something, or travel someplace. How many of them allowed it to take place (and it was within their own control)? How many never had the chance.
Make your impact. Start now. Not Monday, not tomorrow, not next week or next month, and surely not next year. Turn the television off. Cancel the unnecessary plans. Maybe you don’t need to go shop because it’s your hobby. Take that bike ride. Put your phone down. Do something this very moment that will get you closer to your “Someday I’m going to….”
How many “I would love to do that some day’s” started for you two months ago, or even three years ago or more? When exactly do you think it will come to fruition? Someday you’re doing to wish you had just done it. Pay off your debt. Work to get that car you want. Manage your time better. We need to lessen the amount of time we spend on things that don’t get our goal done. We feel guilty about it later, but we actually don’t have to.
Don’t wait for your next heartbreaking loss. Don’t wait for that health crisis to touch your life. Live life with intention. Don’t boil the water and let it sit to evaporate. Use that water to make something. Hot water creates a great bath to relax someone. Hot water adds to the brew of coffee and makes it something that helps give a perk to the day, and some needed energy. Hot water steeped with a tea bag helps calm someone down at the end of a hard day. Don’t let the boil go to waste or evaporate away – use it!