Shaun Groves
I’m stuck in a moment and can’t get out of it. Which happens to be the working title of a friend’s written thoughts on getting unstuck and figuring out what to do with your life. So I approached said friend a couple weeks ago to beg for a preview, a nugget, anything culled form his years of living stuck and unstuck that might help pry me loose from this spot before it becomes home.
“I can do a lot of things at a passing level,” I confessed. “I know a little about a lot of things. And I have opportunities in every direction. I’m frozen by too many options. I don’t know what to be when I grow up. I’m nineteen again.”
His advice was his story. His story took a turn toward what I perceive as the right direction when he asked himself what he was NOT going to do next. Randy suggested that when it’s paralyzing for some of us to figure out what we WILL do next we need to ask ourselves the opposite question.
So I’ve been pondering what I will NOT do next and here’s some of what I’ve decided – though none of this is dry yet:
1) I won’t work in an office eight hours a day.
2) I won’t travel more than I do now (8 days/month max) until my kids are out of school.
3) I won’t take a job because of the pay.
4) I won’t take a job that doesn’t have a tangible impact on other people for the better.
5) I won’t be a music minister at a church.
6) I will not audition for American Idol.
7) I will not wear shorts, spandex, a suit and tie or a chicken costume.
8) I will not live in Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Maine or Alaska…or Louisiana, Florida, Arizona or California…or Guam…or Canada or France.
And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. But I’m still thinking. How about you? What WON’T you do with your life.
Anonymous says:
I won’t leave this world without a family legacy rooted in the fame of Christ.
Juliana Lovespy says:
1. I will not go to work and leave my baby with a sitter.
2. I will not let my baby ‘cry it out’ just so I can get more sleep.
3. I will not take my husband who works so hard for granted.
4. I will not put a television in my child’s room ever.
5. I will not consider myself an old person even though I am a 37-year-old first time mommy of a baby girl.
FancyPants says:
I will never buy a boring pair of pants.
Anonymous says:
Mine is corollary to one of yours, Shaun (#4). What I mean is that I refuse to have just a regular middle-class American family that just gets by. I don’t want to have a “good” family. In an unselfish way, I don’t want to leave and not leave behind a family known to be disciples who make disciples. Or, I don’t want to raise a low-impact family.
mj says:
saying what you won’t do is often the fastest way for God to put that in your path, so I try not to rule things out. Although it looks like you’ve got some pretty good boundaries established for yourself and your family.