Working on your life
Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living.
I’m not a huge NASCAR fan. But I do know that professional drivers spend more time maintaining their cars than driving them. A race car has to be maintained meticulously because the unexamined car is not worth racing.
About a month ago my friend Won recommended a Mark Driscoll talk which sort of rocked my world. In it he talks about how most of us spend all our time working in our lives when we ought to spend much more time working on our lives.
Now through most of December I’ve been thinking about that talk, and how I spend too much time staying busy, and not enough time working on what’s really important. Then one morning, a few days before Christmas, I was reading Proverbs and suddenly a light went on in my head.
It’s your life!
Proverbs is a collection of sayings by the wisest man that ever lived. There seems to be a common idea throughout. That is that wise, principled living brings life, and foolish living brings death. For example…
“Keep my commands and you will live…” (4:4)
“Hold on to instruction…guard it well, for IT IS YOUR LIFE.” (4:13)
It says things like this over and over again. I interpret it this way: it’s your life. Your one and only life. It’s all you have. It’s a gift. It’s yours to manage. Don’t squander it, don’t reck it, don’t waste it. It is your life. Examine it. Maintain it.
It hit me kind of like a race car would if you were standing on the track. I’ve been racing, but haven’t worked on my car. What’s wrong with me?!
So I’ve been spending the past week writing down some ideas and principles, and trying to figure things out. I’m not going to make any overly ambitious resolutions this year. But I am resolving to work on my life in 2009 (not just in it).
Working in
That’s flight mode. Caffeine. To-do lists. Appointments. Errands, tasks, projects. Phone calls. Events. Entertainment. Work. Promotion. Harnessing opportunities and shooting for the stars… Rinse and repeat. I’m exhausted already.
Working on
Breathe…
Alone. Reflection. Prayer. Quiet. Learning. Developing good habits. Health. Eating well. Exercise. Planning. Ingraining principles deep within my thinking.
How all this is going to work, I don’t know yet. I do know I’m going to have to say no to some things, and maybe get up a little earlier. I also know I’m going to have to make some plans, set some personal goals, etc.
How can more time working on make you more affective on the working in? In what ways could you be working on your life that you aren’t now?