I’ve been trying for days to write this. But the hours I slotted today for this were spent instead——in a snowy spruce forest, on a winter beach at sunset here on Kodiak Island.

I’m glad I didn’t get this done (until now). I’m trying to live differently this year. Because I’ve been living like so many others——like this.

I’ve decided the squirrel is the Spirit Animal of our Age.

Is this you, too? Has there ever been a time when we’ve been so distracted, so fractured, so atomized and so assailed by media and work with an accompanying sense of anxiety that won’t sleep or medicate away?

Shall we face a hard truth together?

Every day we face an infinite number of inputs, demands and distractions. And,

We’ll Never Catch Up.

We’ll never know all we’re supposed to know. We’ll never catch up to all we’re supposed to do. (Take just email, for example. The moment we clear our inbox—— it’s cluttered again.)

How do we not lose our minds and our souls in all of this? Here’s what I’ve done all these years. I’ve tackled LIFE by learning every year to be faster, more efficient, more productive, so I could get MORE done each day. I’ve been an overcharged multi-tasking speed-queen list-making fiend since I was a kidlet. (Not to be ungrateful. How else to raise six humans and follow God’s call to write and teach?)

But I don’t want to live like that anymore. I’m never going to change this frenetic fractured world but I CAN find focus and calm in it. And you can too.

Come with me to this WWII bunker on the cliffs near my house.

I’m sharing with you four things I’m doing differently this year to help me find focus:

1. Start your day with what feeds you most.

Maybe that’s time in God’s word and prayer. Or praise dancing. Or writing. Save world news, email, for later. Focus your prime time energy on what matters most. It’ll help fuel you through your entire day.

2. Each day, create a TODAY LIST:

What are the do-able and needed things to get done TODAY? Focus your energy on those. Let the rest go.

3. Create a Not-To-Do List

We can’t do it all, so what can we let go of? Here’s part of my list:

*My house doesn’t need to be perfect, just clean-enough for now

*Save housework/cooking for when I’m on the phone (with 6 kids I’m on the phone a lot!)

*Don’t make dinner on the nights I teach class

4. Turn your phone/computer on FOCUS for sleep, for work, for visiting with family and friends, for worship, for taking walks. Find more and more times and reasons to detach from cyberspace so you can focus on these times and spaces . …

This is not easy for me. I WANT to do it all. But I can’t. I’m excited to try and live slow(er) this new year. Here, share a slow moment with me?

Here is my prayer. Maybe this will be yours as well . ..

Friends, how are you living with more focus and less speed this year?