What Takes Priority? { 3 things + my night reading}

Last year I read a book that changed my life. It now proudly sits on my bedside table so that I can reference it whenever I feel like I am slipping back into old habits.
 
The book is The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable About Restoring Sanity To The Most Important Organization In Your Life (J-B Lencioni Series) The phrase "frantic family" really resinated in my spirit. Our schedules were so full that on most days my neighbors could probably hear me yelling "hurry up, we are going to be late!" or "AK, please just get your brush and do your hair in the CAR!" Oh the pressure…..We were juggling school, dance, drama, girl scouts, friends, church, small groups etc etc…..I am sure you ALL know what I am talking about. This book really helped us put our priorities in order and come together with a family rallying cry. What were we about? What did we want to accomplish as a family? What are our goals and dreams? We sat down and had a family meeting and picked out three things. Ours personally were faith, family and finances. We wanted to grow our relationships with the Lord, serve others, spend time with each other and dig our way out of debt. This was our rallying cry for the year. Each year it needs to be re addressed. This meant that we had to say "no" to a lot of things that would not fall into these categories. One of the major adjustments I wanted to make was to bring dinner back to the table with my family. We eat at the table almost every night now and it is a wonderful time of laughter and connection with each of my kids. It beats hanging your head out the window at a drive through and having to vacuum up french fries that I ashamed to say I wasn't sure how long they had been there. My car looked like a garbage can 98% of the time. Now, why am I telling you all of this? Well, first I hope that someone picks up this book, reads it and it changes their lives like it did mine. But I also wanted to tell you how I have applied it to my business. I just returned from Haven and am still digesting everything that I learned. Several months back I told you all how much I loved each of you, honest I really do, and how I wanted blogging to be my forever job. I didn't realize fully until I went to Haven, just how much time and effort it takes to blog and actually make money doing it. It can be done, I assure you. I met some pretty amazing women who blog full time and actually make more than their husbands. I am not sure I want THAT, but I do want to be able to afford to put my kids in the school that I choose, be able to pay off debt and to be able to afford to make some improvements in our home. So, I had a meeting with myself. I went back to the principles of the book and asked myself, Who am I? What am I about? What do I want out of this business? What are my dreams and goals? Where do I see myself in five years? What do I want out of this blog? These questions, plus a few more, helped me to narrow down Restore Interiors's rallying cry. What are my three things? Well, I am going to keep those to myself but I know what I want and where I am going until the Lord directs otherwise. In doing this, I had to make some pretty tough and hard decisions. One of those being removing myself from 2 out of the three stores that I had committed to. I put in my 30 day notice at Vintage Interiors and had to totally disappoint my sweet friend Jenn who just opened up a store right near my home called Past and Presents. Homewood Antiques and Marketplace is where I feel I can be the most successful on the retail end of my business and I can take the extra time to make my space there beautiful. Trying to balance three stores was taking the creativity out of what I was doing because I was constantly trying to keep filling holes. I felt like I ended up just slapping paint on something to get it in there. I will also have more time to focus on my blog, writing, producing great tutorials for you all, as well as possibly author a few E-books. The most important thing I wanted to make sure of was that my work schedule and craziness was not going to take away from my family. Wife and mom are always going to be my number one job. If at anytime that gets shifted, then I will re evaluate again. We all have so many talents and are gifted in so many different ways. This Pinterest world has all of us creative people saying, "Oh, I could do that and Oh… I could do that!" and on and on it goes. Eventually you have your hands in 15 things and none of them are ever fully perfected. Pick out your top three things and be the best at those three things that you can be. This will set you up for success. I promise, you will see immediate results. Not only does it relieve stress but it creates focus. I am preaching to the choir here people. This is my life, right now. Thanks for listening to my babble. If someone gets one nugget and implements it, I will be a happy camper. Have a wonderful Thursday!