I spoke recently at a youth conference in Baltimore, Maryland. In attendance were about six or seven dozen high school aged students. Several adults and some young people from the college aged crowd were there as well. The topic was understanding self worth, developing a passion in life to help others and remembering that the most important person in your life is you. The talk went very well but it was what happened afterward that really had an impact and a life lesson.
A 15 year old girl came up to me with eyes that said she was searching for answers. She told me she did not know what she was going to do with her life and she was having trouble making finding a focus. It turns out she was a spitting image of the “teenager from the 21st century.” She was involved in five different sports at school and 13 student organizations or activities. No wonder she was having trouble. It sounded like the kind of schedule that was designed for disaster or at the very least, exhaustion.
It really doesn’t matter that she had not found a direction in her life. I told her I did not figure that out until the age of 44 which meant she had plenty of time. The real key here is that she was yearning for a direction. Counsel followed with a suggestion to slowly begin to pull back. Instead of 13 activities or organizations cut it in half next year and in half again the following year. Perhaps she could do the same in sports. The point is the key to direction in life is finding something that becomes passionate for you. You cannot do that with 13 activities and five sports. As you reduce those numbers the activities or causes that remain come to the top and develop into passions. They often times develop into life long callings.
So for the over scheduled, go ahead and reduce that clutter in your life. Take a hard look at your calendar and decide what should stay and what should go. Then focus on the items, causes or organizations that remain and enjoy
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