May 16, 2025- Limits

“For most of us, though, the problem is not a lack of goals but rather too many of them.”

~Roy Baumeister

We only have 24 hours in our day and we ought to be sleeping for 7 to 9 of them. We have jobs, families, friends, homes, bodies, and minds to take care of. We may want to fill those 13 to 15 waking hours with constant production, squeezing as much out of them as possible. We may want to admonish ourselves for wasted time or motion, knowing we just left some potential on the table. We simply can’t do it all.

As important as our need to work is, so is our need to rest. Our lives need some space to breathe. Our minds need some time to wander. Our bodies need some time to sit and idle.

When we set unreasonable goals for ourselves, we guarantee failure. Eventually, we label ourselves as failures. We start to doubt that we even have the ability to accomplish our goals and we soon fail at even the ones that were well within our reach.

Do we probably waste some time? Yes, but that’s OK. Do our lives probably lack efficiency? Yes, but we are living this life for the first time, and we’re bound to mess some things up. That’s OK. 

What we must do is to prioritize. What goals of ours are non-negotiable? What do we value as truly important? If we are able to put our first things first, we are able to grow into a better version of us.