13. When Busyness Catches Up: Choosing What Matters Most

Life has a way of bunching up, even in retirement. This episode is about balancing multiple commitments and prioritizing what truly matters. As she looks at life from a different perspective, Vona emphasizes the role of God's plan for work and rest and how faith and flexibility can guide us in making the right choices. 

Discover practical tips that you can easily implement in your daily life, on maintaining harmony with our priorities, being present for loved ones, and embracing God's purpose, all while finding peace and fulfillment. 

Discover how the daily practice of your faith and the courage to make bold choices can lead to a retirement that is not just fulfilling but truly enriching. 

Subscribe now to receive more valuable insights and tips that can help you navigate your retirement journey with courage and faith! 

00:00 Introduction: Life's Unpredictable Agenda 

00:20 Embracing Retirement with Purpose 

00:56 Balancing Multiple Roles and Commitments 

02:46 The Importance of Flexibility and Prioritization 

04:04 God's Role in Our Decision-Making 

05:05 Cherishing Family Moments 

05:24 Finding Grace in Busy Times 

06:10 Practical Tips for Prioritizing 

07:04 Embracing Flexibility and God's Timing 

07:53 The Importance of Being Present 

08:33 Living Out Your Faith 

09:01 Conclusion and Upcoming Topics

Check out the article "The Art of Masterful Living" on my LinkedIn profile or on my Live Your More Blog. 

If you prefer to listen to the audio version of Courageous Retirement, find us on your favorite platform or on the show's website.

Learn more about Vona at https://vonajohnson.com.

Thank you for stopping by today! Remember to Engage Your Faith and Live Your More as you reap the benefits of Courageous Retirement!

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Learn more about the show, author Vona Johnson, and more at CourageousRetirement.com!

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Transcript

Vona Johnson: 0:00

No matter how carefully we plan, sometimes our life has its own agenda. What do we do when our commitments collide and our balance tips. It's not about doing it all. It's about doing what matters most. Let's talk about how to prioritize when everything feels important and how God's plan for work and rest, play into how we make our decisions.

Speaker: 0:20

Do you fear what lies beyond retirement? What if it's a gateway to a life filled with purpose, meaning, and adventure rather than an end? Discover peace and fulfillment as you boldly enter this new chapter in Courageous Retirement, a Christian podcast. I'm your host, author and coach, Vona Johnson. Let's get started.

Vona Johnson: 0:39

You know, I love retirement. I love everything about it. I've just been able to build a life that is exactly what I want it to be. And I've talked to other people who have retired and they say the same thing. Yeah. I'm busy. I'm busier than I've ever been, but I'm doing things that I want to do. I don't know about you, but there are times when everything bunches up at the same time. And. It's just, I mean, that's going to happen. And for me, for example, I am a wife. I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother. Those, those are priorities for me. I have a podcast. I do video podcast. I love to write, I've written a couple of books, but I'm also in Toastmasters to help me speak better. I'm in a business coaching group. That's faith-based and that just really fills me up and keeps me on track. But then I'm also a city commissioner and I have meetings that come together with those city commission duties, throughout the week through some are quarterly some are every week. And then I also do Bible studies and I have my devotions every day and I want to be healthy and I want to eat right. And you get the point. Oh, and I forgot, I also want to spend time with my friends and there are times when, even with my best laid plans. All of my commitments come together and they bunch up and, and it's, it's hard to decide what to do first. You know, God created both work and rest. And when we don't consciously think about when we're working and when we're resting and, and I've written an article before about the master of the art of living and how when we are a master of the art of living people can't even really tell when we're working and when we're playing, because our work becomes our play. And I really feel that that's important in retirement. If we get to the point where we focus too much on work, or we focus too much on rest, then that work, or that rest really becomes an idol for us. And it kind of pushes out God from our lives and when that happens, it becomes more of an issue of control and less about just surrendering to God. One of the keys that we need to remember is that we need to stay flexible. And I have said a million times. I'm not anything if I'm not flexible, but again, there are times when our flexibility isn't enough. When God calls or in this situation, when I have made commitments to watch my grandkids, because their parents are busy with their lives. I have to make decisions and, and today is one of those days. I'm in the middle of doing, I needed to get this podcast out and I, I made a commitment to do this every two weeks and I didn't want to just not make that happen. But I also have a commitment to watch kids. So what do I do? I make a shorter episode and maybe don't make it as perfect, but I get both done. And that was important to me. When life gets bunched up for you, I just really encourage you to stop and think about what's really important. And for me, what's gonna always trump is those grandkids. So it's really important to me when I am thinking about the decisions I'm going to make and what I'm going to do and what I, what every time we say yes to something we're saying no to something else. Right. And it's, I mean, we have to prioritize that on our own and I encourage to you to consider when you're doing that too. Just spend some quiet time with God and ask him where the priority should be. Oftentimes he will make it easier for you so that you can do both. Or he was, he was sometimes I'll have appointments that just get canceled randomly. So I have more time to do the things that I prioritize, but when we try to control it all ourselves, that's when we really get out of balance and anytime we get to that point and we make a decision. We need to be careful not to feel like a failure because we haven't gone the other route or done the other thing. We have to sometimes just focus on God's bigger purpose. And for me, as important as this podcast is, and as important as it is to remind Christians that we need to have courage to step into the things that God has called us to. My grandkids are the most important thing right now. They are at an impressionable age and they need to know. That they are a priority and that they are loved and they also need to have discipline and they need. All the things that I can bring to them. Is is really important. My grandmother was one of the most important people in my lives, and I still carry with me. Moments, just simple things that happened. That just I treasure. And I want to be that for my grandchildren. As well. We need to have grace in our busy-ness. We need to know that when things do get out of hand and we get stressed out, or we react in a negative way that we have grace for that. And we can lean into God. And we can trust him to help us ferret out our schedule and find the things that are most important. He, he works through our lives and the interruptions, the things that pull us away from some of the things that we really enjoy, like this podcast or working on. Uh, newsletter or whatever. Um, When I get to those things, I know that they will be done in God's perfect timing. And I need to not resent the, what feel like sometimes the disruptions from this life that I've created. So some practical tips of what I encourage you to do when your life gets bunched up and busy-ness that takes over is to really be focused on what are the things that are most important to you? What are the non-negotiables for me? That's my faith. That's spending time with God every day and spending time in quiet time. Listening to what he has to say, praying throughout the day. Spending time with my family and just feeling the joy of having them around me and being a part of their everyday lives is so important. That's why I make sure that I'm home when my husband's home is most often as I can. That's when I, why I make sure when the kids call and say they need help with the grandkids. I'm there. If I can possibly be there. But I also make sure that I set aside time to rest in God's presence. That is. Utmost important to me. And I also have to be okay with letting go of the things that aren't vitally important. If I've learned nothing else over the last several years and this process of helping people live their MORE I've learned that that flexibility and that letting go is so vitally important. God's timing is perfect. And we can rest in knowing that we're enough, right where we are and that the things that the world say are important. Aren't always as important. Be open to when God nudges you to do something that may not be on your agenda for the day to just know that that might be where he needs you most in that day. And sometimes it's things that there's no way you can plan for, for example, this week. It's a busy week. It things are bunched up. And then unexpectedly, I learned that a very dear friend passed away. It was heartbreaking for me to get that news and it just reiterated for me why all of this is so important, why it's important that my grandkids are first because I don't know that I'm going to be here tomorrow. I'm not promised tomorrow. I'm not promised that they will be here tomorrow. And so that's why would I do is so important and that's why you as. That maybe you're not a grandparent, but that, that older wiser person in the lives of the people that, you know, that's why it's important that we share with them the things that are, that do matter most. And we exemplify for them in our lives. How we make important choices because. It's it's crucial that people see us live out our faith every day. I just want to remind you that choosing the right thing, even when it means saying no to something else, that might be really good. Is okay. And it's important. And that's part of this living our more, this is that's part of living in the peace and fulfillment and stepping into God's purpose for our lives. That's how we learned to trust God and learn to trust in his lead. So this episode might be a little shorter than usual. It may not be as finessed although I don't really get into that that much, but I just wanted to stop in and say. Life does get busy and it's okay because God's got this. So hang in there and look forward to talking to you next time. When I share some things that were surprising to me about some of the things I've done. I talk about planting seeds. God is showing fruit in places that I never would have imagined. And I'm just really excited to share that with you. Sometimes courageous retirement doesn't look like what we think it will look like. Sometimes it's just picking the priorities or the things that matter most contrary to what the world would tell us. And that is why we're here. So I look forward to seeing you back here next time. If you haven't already and you enjoy the show, please subscribe so that you won't miss an episode. I really appreciate you being here and I pray that you will engage your faith and enjoy the immense benefits of living courageous retirement.