Write Your Life-giving List + 2020 Vision Planning

When you’re under stress:

Through seasons of high stress over the years, I’ve found a simple practice that reorients my soul and brings me great peace. I routinely sit down with a paper and pen. And I write my Life-Giving List. It’s a grounding habit.

When I feel that whirlwind and the chaotic debris looks like a cranky mama or a frazzled friend, it’s usually because I forgot what’s life-giving and let those things slide.

When everything has changed:

I have noticed that these lists change depending on the season. What’s life-giving to me now is a whole different life than what was life-giving three years ago.

I have also noticed that each time we move our family requires a complete reset as well. It takes a long time to find a new normal in a new place. That’s just a natural consequence of a move. But for example, something life-giving for me in Nebraska was learning ballet for the first time. And here… there’s not a studio for my age group during the day. 😉 So, one thing that brought me a ton of life is now something I lament the loss of.

Of course, I have a hundred things like that in my current fire… Which is why I desperately needed to write my Life-Giving List all over again. From scratch. Like everything else in my life. Scratch. Thankfully, our God is the God who makes something out of nothing. And thankfully, I was still able to fill my page with Life-Giving Things and People.

After a move (and after a devastating loss), you do your best to return to your normal routines. But this can takes months because some of your normal routines are not longer an option. So have grace for yourself. I’m trying to do the same!

How to write your Life-Giving List:

• What activities, routines, thoughts do you currently practice that bring you life?

• Try to remember things you stopped doing but need to pick up again.

• Life-giving choices doesn’t equate being self-absorbed. (Duh.) It brings me a lot of life to write for others. It brings me a lot of life to cook for others. It brings me life to intercede for others. What brings you life that serves others?

My Life-Giving List:

I’ll share just a few of my own to jog your thoughts for your own list. But I go to town and fill a page or a note card when I do this exercise. And then I stick it usually in front of my toilet in the bathroom. Because that’s a good place to sit still and pray and think without people barging in.

• ballet, stretching

• writing

• laughing with my kids

• keeping the house tidy

• praying with a team, doing battle

• getting to bed early, waking up early

• praying in my spirit in the shower

• dancing

• painting

Your turn! Write your list!

Just snag some paper and jot a few things down. Don’t overthink it. Just write whatever flies off the top of your head. You’ll be amazed how this helps you refocus your time and energy.

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This is only the beginning!

This Life-Giving List exercise is just one of many in my new 2020 Vision-Planning Workbook. The workbook intentionally guides you step-by-step to a place where you can focus your routines and activities through the lens of your callings and priorities and what brings you life!

The Vision Planning Workbook will give you step-by-step instruction to help you:

1. Cut out what’s excess in your schedule.

2. Prioritize what’s life-giving.

3. Return to life-giving routines.

That kind of clarity and focus is a game-changer! Grab your copy of the Vision-Planning Workbook here today!