3am

I began this blog with a punishment of sorts. I picked up a great idea not too long ago from a workshop I attended about an incentive to get my work done. It is called the 3am Talk with God. The idea is that each day I declare my P3 (that’s my shorthand for top 3 Priorities for the day...cleaver huh?). My goal is to get at least one of them done before noon and ideally all three of them. If I don’t get 1 done before noon AND get them all 3 accomplished in the day then I have to wake my ass up at 3am, go for a walk, have a little chat with myself and God, and reflect on my commitment to what I’ve set out to accomplish.

My first attempt at this game lead me to this very blog. I failed to accomplish my P3’s and I found myself setting my alarm for 3 am. Yes, I am honoring my word to myself. 3am rolls around and I rallied myself out of bed for a long walk…to the bathroom…and then right back to bed. However, I did sit on the end of my bed for a few minutes and believe it or not, I did have the heart to heart conversation with myself and with God. Here’s what I learned.

Listen more. There’s more to life than just goals and accomplishments. Create more space in your life to listen to your own thoughts. Create more space to listen to another’s words. Create more space to truly get what it is that is coming from your outside world and into your life. We (and by we I mean me, but you may relate too) tend to listen so quickly, so unconsciously as if we’re just skimming the frosting off of everything that occurs in our day to day world. There’s cake in there, really good cake, if we would just take the time and make the space to truly listen and hear not just the words but all the underlying messages…without editing, just appreciating the essence of what is being communicated. Imagine how your relationships would change if you listened more. Imagine how much time you could save if you listened better. Imagine how easy things could be if you listened so well it caused another to have no other choice but to ask for your thoughts.

This is what I got at 3am. In the quiet of the night, I had no other choice but to listen. To me it was quite a gift…and not at all what I was expecting. So I took my gift from God and decided to start listening to myself better, for starters. Now as I set my daily P3’s I take a moment to reflect and I ask myself, “is this truly what my heart is set on for today? Does accomplishing these 3 tasks satisfy my greatest purpose in life or at least bring me one step closer? And then I LISTEN. I listen for my own answer. And it will not come from my head, from my logic, or from the drunken monkey that often runs wild between my ears…rather it simply comes as a whisper from deep in my heart as a feeling that washes over me and leaves me feeling powerful and inspired.

What I thought I was doing was honoring a commitment to myself. Instead I found a gift of quietness and stillness that caused me to listen in a way I have not done before. Now there’s this part of me that hopes I will fail again just to see what the next lesson is that I will learn at 3 am…I’m not sure if that is really cool or kinda sucks. Who wants to be excited about failing? J

But not this night...today, I have completed my P3’s.

Until my next 3am Talk with God…
-T.