top of page
odellanderson

Drainers Don't Need Justification




This is sort of a sequel to an episode I did about a week or so ago that talked about the Energy audit, making a list of things that energize and drain you. And I told a story about how I am removing a specific career related drainer from my work life. And I'll invite you to go back and listen to that episode. I believe it's episode five called The Energy Audit. Something interesting has happened since then.


My brain has been doing some interesting calculations, some interesting gymnastics around this decision. And it's caused me to sort of reflect on why it might be doing that and try release myself from this ping-ponging that it seems to be doing. Because what's been happening since I've made the decision to say, "I no longer want to do this function. I need to transition for someone else." My brain has been trying to come up with rational and logical reasons why I don't want to do this. Why in my gut and my intuition, I no longer want to perform this function.


And again, the function itself is fairly neutral. I said, it's a needed function. It needs to be handled. Someone needs to be responsible for it. It's got some value. There are some duties assigned to it. I simply don't want to do them anymore. And for some reason, my brain is trying to convince me that simply not wanting to do this anymore is not enough of a reason. And it's trying to come up with rational, logical justification for me not wanting to do something.


And I find that interesting. And I'm watching my brain do this thing. You got the angel on one side, the devil on another, the devil's throwing his pitchforks and the angel's throwing halos back. And they're clashing in midair. Watching this back and forth is interesting. And I find myself asking, why do I have to rationalize or justify a decision to remove something from my life that no longer brings me joy?


And that's a simple question I would invite for you. Cause you yourself as you're staring down the barrel of the second half of your life and making decisions on clearing things out of your way so that you can focus on the big goals that God has for you. And you may find yourself trying to justify and make rational the thing that seems intuitively in your spirit, in your heart, in your gut, like the thing you need to do.


And the thing I'm going to release you from is needing to justify and rationalize this kind of decision, particularly around things, around things in your life that in and of themselves are sort of value neutral. They're neither good, nor bad. They're simply there. Now obviously certain things that we have in our lives that may not necessarily energize us, but we need to push through those because they are good things overall. But for a lot of the things that we have in our life that we could take or leave, sometimes we can simply leave them with no more justification for that.


You don't have to always rationalize and come up with logical reasons why you simply don't like the things that you don't like and remove them from your life and let that be that with no explanation needed for yourself or anyone else involved.


So this is sort of a sequel to that episode because I've been watching this play out in the theater of my mind. And at the end of the day, I was like, wait, why am I even watching this at all? Why are we even putting on this show? Why is my brain doing this? I like to have reasons. The why behind the what of certain things and for me making this decision, it felt right at the time. Still feels right. And I don't feel the need to force myself to like this particular function and to continue doing it. I've done it for awhile. I was sort of asked to do it. I've taken it on. I think I've done a good job at it, but it's like, you know what? I'm done with this. It no longer serves me.


And that's what I want to leave you with, is just the idea that when you make a decision to remove something from your life, that drains you... If you intuitively know this and your heart feels it... and you know, this is something you simply no longer want to do... person you no longer want to be around... a place you no longer want to go... a thought you no longer want to have... a habit you no longer want to engage in... simply move it aside and get rid of it- no additional justification needed.





4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page