“If you want to carve out space in your life for your blue flame, you will have to think carefully about the trade-offs you make with your time. . . . What we like doing in the short term is often not aligned with what we dream of doing over the long term.”- Jennifer Fulwiler
Jennifer Fulwiler concludes Chapter 17 of Your Blue Flame as she exhorts you to make your calendar fit your mission. Hence, she cites Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. In the book Marie introduced the world to a revolutionary concept in decluttering. Keep only things that spark joy.
Thus, Jennifer advocates, do the same with your calendar. Then, for every block of time on your schedule, ask yourself if it sparks joy. Certainly, you’ll always find plenty of things on your calendar you don’t love. But, even in those cases, it’s worth your time to ask if there’s a way to bring your blue flame into them. So they might spark a little bit of joy.
In addition, the author observes, every decision you make involves a trade-off. Therefore, when you do one thing, you also choose not to do another. Consequently, as Greg McKeown states, it’s critical to distinguish the vital few from the critical many. Because that eliminates nonessentials and removes obstacles – creating clear, smooth passage.
In conclusion, Jennifer describes the goal of this process:
“The goal is not to go through each week with a perfect schedule that’s free of anything your don’t enjoy; the goal is to fearlessly make informed trade-offs so that you are following the destiny that’s meant for you, rather than the one that’s handed to you by other people’s opinions.”
Today’s question: What schedule changes must you make to carve out space for your blue flame? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Barricading yourself in a remote location”
