I’ve officially declared this week as a week of rest in honor of the book I’m reading: “Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living.” It’s also in honor of me coming to the realization that I suffer from a serious addiction to “doing” and that I hide behind “busy” an awful lot. But I have a full-disclosure confession about that on its way to you very soon. In the meantime, here are 20 quotes from people that have gotten fed up with the chaos and craziness of their lives. These are the words that have been helping me manage my calendar, assess my priorities, create boundaries, and slow down to let life in. They’ve also been encouraging me to familiarize myself and get comfortable with the word “no.”
Here are my favorites, in no particular order:
“A reluctant yes will become a resentful yes.” -Brene Brown
“The battle for our hearts are fought on the pages of our calendars.” -Bob Goff
“If it’s not a “hell yes!”, it’s a no.” -Jen Hatmaker
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” -Stephen Covey
“A woman who lives with the stress of an overwhelmed schedule will often ache with the sadness of an underwhelmed soul.” -Lysa TerKeurst
“You can be a kind person and still say no.”
“Let your mind and heart rest for a while. You will catch up, the world will not stop spinning for you, but you will catch up. Take a rest.” -Cynthia Go
“Whenever you say yes to something, there is less of you for something else. Make sure your yes is worth the less.” -Lysa TerKeurst
“But you can’t have yes without no. Another way to say it: if you’re not careful with your yeses, you start to say no to some very important things without even realizing it. In my rampant yes-yes-yes-ing, I said no, without intending to, to rest, to peace, to groundedness, to listening, to deep and slow connection, built over years instead of moments.” -Shauna Niequist
“Find that courageous yes. Fight for that confident no.” -Lysa TerKeurst
“If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.” -Corrie ten Boom
“Many of us, myself, included, considered our souls necessary collateral damage to get done the things we felt we simply had to get get done – because of other people’s expectations, because we want to be know as highly capable, because we’re trying to outrun an inner emptiness. And for a while we don’t even realize the compromise we’ve made. We’re on autopilot, chugging through the day on fear and caffeine, checking things off the list, falling into bed without even a real thought or feeling or connection all day long, just a sense of having made it through. -Shauna Niequist
“What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated how much time we spent listening, pondering, meditating and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives?” -Greg Mckeown
“We must not confuse the command to love with the disease to please.” -Lysa TerKeurst
“The word “busy” is the weapon of mass destruction to relationships.”
“Our primary defaults are exhaustion and guilt. Meanwhile, we have beautiful lives begging to be really lived, really enjoyed, really applauded.” -Jen Hatmaker
“‘Crazy-busy’ is a great armor; it’s a great way for numbing. What a lot of us do is that we stay so busy and so out in front of our life, that the truth of how we’re feeling and what we really need can’t catch up with us.” -Brene Brown
“Here is part of the problem, girls: we’ve been sold a bill of goods. Back in the day, women didn’t run themselves ragged trying to achieve some impressively developed life in eight different categories. No one constructed fairy-tale childhoods for their spawn, developed an innate set of personal talents, fostered a stimulating and world-changing career, created stunning homes and yardscapes, provided homemade food for every meal (locally sourced, of course), kept all marriage fires burning, sustained meaningful relationships in various environments, carved out plenty of time for “self care,” served neighbors/church/world, and maintained a fulfilling, active relationship with Jesus our Lord and Savior. You can’t balance that job description. Listen to me: No one can pull this off. No one is pulling this off. The women who seem to ride this unicorn only display the best parts of their stories. Trust me. No one can fragment her time and attention into this many segments.” -Jen Hatmaker
“Joy comes to us in ordinary moments. We risk missing out when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.” -Brene Brown
“‘No’ is a complete sentence.” -Erin Loechner