Choosing to WIN

When I was 16 years old I tripped over the stairs at my mom’s business. I was rushing and these were outside stairs. They were made of hard concrete and rusted metal. My feet ended up missing one of the steps and I landed on my left hand. Because I’ve always had the strong independent gene (it doesn’t always come in handy) I told everyone I was fine.

Turns out, my middle and ring finger on my left hand now hurt from time to time and I can’t crack them in the correct direction (fingers towards palm), instead I have to push them backwards and this is when I feel some release. So weird right?

Friday I started feeling a really dull pain on my left shoulder, so I naturally performed the unique manipulation of my finger joints until I heard the loved for some and hated for many release of nitrogen gas from my knuckles, “pop-pop” and by 11 am my left arm was completely useless. I had so much work to do which is why I’m working on Sunday morning, but Friday I chose to WIN.

Years ago when I read Essentialism by Greg McKeown he talks about choosing to do What is Important Now (WIN) and this idea of choosing to WIN is something I’ve taken seriously as I embarked on my journey of recovery from procrastination.

Because my mom always reminds me that there’s always going to be work to be done, I have to be really diligent to choose to WIN every day.

And when my whole arm gave up on me, my WIN changed: to take care of myself. Could I have pushed through and finish work? Yes. And I probably would have been out for longer. So I chose to take care of my arm and now my left limb mobility is significantly better.

My choice to WIN on Friday allowed me to show up restored and replenished today and this week.

Sometimes a little slow down can actually propel us to do a bigger and stronger jump.

To you, are you choosing to WIN today?

~ Pam