Action.
Activity.
Purpose.

Those are things I love. I get a great sense of satisfaction by days that are filled with activities that ultimately make a difference in people's lives. Until….that moment when I know that things are going too fast and I start to feel off balance. It's then that emotions I don’t normally experience begin show up. I begin to feel stress. I know if I don’t do something, I’m putting myself at risk. That is not what I want to do.

I recently experienced this. I knew my schedule was extremely full, but I was ok with it, because it was short term. It would only last a few weeks and then things would become normal again. What I didn’t take into consideration was the fact that the things filling my schedule were very high intensity and would consume much more emotional bandwidth than I was aware of. I also neglected to factor in that there were things going on in my personal life that needed more of me than I could give with the many other things that were happening.

It was enough to trigger an internal alarm. It's a "blinking yellow light". It was time for some quick adjustments and accountability. I shared what I was going through with a few people, and then began to pull back and gave myself some personal space so I could strengthen my inner person again.It takes a lot of discipline to self-correct in a timely manner, but done right, can save a lot of difficulty.

I have come to realize that as much as I love a full life with a lot of activity, I need to take the time and plan in my schedule to have the down time needed. Unless I take the time to refresh myself, I will have nothing to give.

So, to truly do what I love, which is making an impact in people's lives, I need to take time to be anchored and grounded. I can only do that when I pull back periodically and refresh my inner me.

How about you? Do you know what to do to pull back and regroup so that you can do and be all that you are called to be?

Is life just a little too fast?