There is an intersection, believe it or not, between the soft life and the productive life. The disciplined life and the life of ease of receiving. You don’t have to choose- between those two things. This is what you are actually choosing between:
Knowing everything vs knowing only what you’ll need.
We consume an ungodly amount of information on an hourly basis. We’ve seen tutorials on hair, dog grooming, and fly fishing all within the same minute, thanks to social media. This is unhealthy and above all, unnecessary. Due to our high consumption rate, creativity, productivity, and naturality have decreased significantly. Everyone regurgitates the same talking points, everyone has prioritized the same few things, when none of it is relevant to the ground you are toiling.
To everything a season. A season for the soft life and the productive life. A season for both if you allow it.
If you allow it, you can have both a season of productivity and softness. This is a blended season where alignment, faith, and works cross. This is a combination of knowing what we should do, doing it, and embracing the outcomes knowing it is for our progression or sustaining. Each season is not isolated to one theme, one atmosphere, or one lifestyle. One of the most important things in life is balance. If we are well-balanced and regulated we can juggle several ideas and tasks at once. How is this possible? Because a balanced lifestyle comes from a balanced mind. Our minds are canisters holding billions of sentiments in a single moment.
How do I balanced the soft life and the productive life?
You have to distinguish what is it you need to know. , Just like tasks take up time in your day, unnecessary thoughts take up room in your mind. When too much space in our minds is occupied by ideas that lead to outcomes that may be good- but won’t fulfill us, we become overwhelmed, discouraged, or blue.
How do you find out what you need to know? Find out what it is you need to do. That will tell you what you need to know. Anything outside of what you need to do is not relevant. Anything outside of what you need to know is not relevant.
Identify the season you are in. If you are prioritizing sleep, work, and your diet, those are the things that will fulfill you the most in this season. So be disciplined enough to commit to them, but also merciful enough on yourself to not add any extra doing or knowing to your plate.
If you are practicing learning a new language, doing an assignment for God, and experimenting with baking then do those things. Being read up on the latest celebrity or political news is not relevant to you- it checks nothing off your list that YOU made, it adds not one second to your life, and gives you no sense of pride to know these things because you weren’t prioritizing them anyways.
This is balancing the soft life and the productive life. Get what you want to be done, and leave the rest. You choose the list, you make the rules, and your level of performance is up to you.
Avoiding guilt from being soft, or exhaustion from working too hard.
God is written on our hearts, and he has programmed our spirits. You can not help but be drawn to what God has placed on your heart. That being said, you will always feel guilty for not accomplishing something that you innately desire to do. In the same way, you will not gain all you should gain by overloading yourself with tasks deemed important by everyone around you.
It may not be your season to be in the gym. It may not be your season to get eight full hours of sleep.
You must be self-aware and connected enough to identify what it is your spirit wants.
In conclusion
Your lifestyle and daily regimens and to-do lists should not be curated by anyone but you. Take some time to see what God has led you to do.