Revolution in Your Life

How do you get a revolution in your life?  Keep it simple!!  Look to your own life, your own cues, your own patterns.

In my last blog I talked about getting back to basics and making a simple plan that you can stick with and achieve consistently - that’s where the magic happens.    

To help you get started with a revolution in your life start here:

Look back over your years.  Think back to a time when you felt happy, pleased with your accomplishments, proud of who you are and what you were doing.  What are you doing now versus what you were doing then.  What’s changed?  What’s controllable?  What can you effect in simple adjustments to bring yourself the results you want to see?  

For me, I had a changing moment when I realized I was leaving God out of my daily equation.  

We are currently a retired military family but not so many years ago we were right in the thick of it.  We had been through deployments, long field problems, multiple moves, births and deaths and in fact we had just had our third baby and were set to move when our orders changed... yet again... (the military will teach you to be flexible whether you like it or not, lol!). 

I was between driving my son to school everyday and wrangling a two year old and an infant, laundry, cooking, cleaning, all the household chores and being a new-ish mom for the third time (every baby is different) and it all felt like a struggle.  We lived thousands of miles from family and I was feeling all the feels and needing a revolution in my life.  

I remember standing in the master bathroom looking at myself wondering where I had gone.  I was on autopilot just surviving another midnight feeding and early trip to the school drop off line and all the life that happened before and after.  I felt out of control.  I felt sad.  I felt lost.  I felt alone.  I felt like if I ate one more hot dog I might wake up in a bun.  I felt like I was working really hard and getting nothing really done.  

A lot of people would say, that’s just that time of life you’re in and yes, to some extent I would agree.  I needed to extend myself some grace.  And yet I felt so unlike myself something had t change.  Adding a new family member is always joyously exhausting and wonderfully draining.  Having multiple kids, a husband with a crazy schedule and demanding job, etc..is taxing on all parts of a person.  It’s the best  mixed with a lot of really hard.  Looking back I also realize I was suffering with postpartum depression around the edges (but we’ll save that for another day).

The conclusion I came to when doing exactly what I suggest above, taking some inventory, was that not only had we not found another church home but I had all but quit reading my Bible daily or having a devotional going.  I had stopped feeding my spirit and I was running on what the world was giving me.  I can tell you a first grader, a two year old and an infant don’t have a lot to give, their needs are high and patience low.  

When I isolated what was missing for me, where the revolution needed to start, it was the catalyst for all the other little changes I also needed in my life.  But I tackled them one at a time.  I was already in a state of overwhelm… flipping more of my life on its ear wasn’t going to bring me a revolution, it would have brought me to my breaking point at my very core.

So, one thing at a time...  

Spending time in the Word gave me the encouragement I needed to get back to a positive attitude, to know I wasn’t alone, that God’s plan was bigger than mine and this was a season not for eternity.  

When that started happening I started to find the energy to take of myself regularly.  With workouts happening and spending some time in prayer and devotion it propelled me to want to get my eating back under control.  The relationship between my husband and I became more enjoyable because I was getting my confidence back.  I began enjoying the kids more because not only was I confident in myself but I had more energy to chase and play and be the fun mom I wanted to be.  

So many things were impacted by one little change.  

All this to say, you don’t need a complete overhaul, you need to isolate what you can do, find a basic solution so that when your foundation gets strong and you’re ready to take that next step you’ll know right where to go.    

During this season of resolutions I encourage you to ditch the lengthy lists of what you’re going to do and find one area to have a revolution.  One area that is missing, one key piece, one area that needs some adjusting and you’ll be off and running.  

I honestly believe none of us are that far off from exactly where we want to be, we just need to find the little tweaks that bring us to revolution and systems to keep us there.  

Now, the first thing I do everyday is read at least one Bible verse, keep a daily devotion going and make sure I hit up a few of my favorite pastor’s podcasts during the week.  Making this one change brought me back to life and gave me the push I needed to get back to taking care of myself in so many other ways.  I can take care of the people who matter the most to me better when I take care of myself first.  I guard my morning routine like it’s gold because it fuels the rest of my day, week, month and beyond.  It keeps the revolution in my life going.    

Where will your revolution start?