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Picture courtesy of The Pioneer Woman when she had her book signing in SLC.  I'm in this picture.

Look around at your life.  Are you happy with what is happening?  Do you spend days on end feeling guilty for what you DON'T get accomplished rather than finding joy in what you DO accomplish?  Did you know that 90% of success is just showing up?

A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with my friend, Rebecca.  We were talking about how we have both recently realized that we want to live life on purpose - live intentionally.  Rebecca isn't the only person I have had this conversation with lately.  So what does it mean to live life on purpose?  That's a good question, and my belief is that everyone's answer is different.

To start off - ask yourself what is important to you on a daily basis.  I like my schedule to look something like this:

1.  Wake up and get up.

2.  Do some kind of exercise for 20-30 minutes.

3.  Spend some time praying and meditating about my day.

4.  Take a shower.

4.5 Eat something.

5.  Make lunch for Josh.

6.  Read scriptures with the kids.

7.  Say prayers with the kids.

8.  Take kids to school.

So looking at my morning in this perspective - what are the key elements?  Do I have to exercise?  No, however, I feel better about my day when I do.  Do I need to take a shower?  Well, if I am exercising then that response would be yes.  Breakfast?  Most important meal of the day.  Feeding the kids?  They might like that.  Scriptures and prayers?  Here is where the question becomes the most important.  How important is it for me to include that in my morning?  Is it worth getting up 15 minutes early so that I can get everything else done?  I will admit - some days it is, and some days it is not.  When I am living my life on purpose - it is.  However, let's face it - some days getting out of bed is the best you can do.

Last week my son came home from school.  I was on a call for work and so I let him in and then essentially ignored him.  When I got off the call, we had to rush out the door to get somewhere on time.  He was being a slowpoke and whining about everything and the more he whined, the more frustrated and angry I got, and so went that cycle.  About 10 minutes into the argument I stopped and said, "Okay, let's start over.  Remember how you walked in the door and I was on the phone?  I'm sorry about that.  What I wanted to do was greet you with a big hug and kiss and ask you about your day."  So I blew kisses to the backseat and pretended to hug the air and said, "How was your day?!"  He immediately started giggling and the argument was over.  I lived that moment on purpose.

Had I continued with the argument, I wouldn't have liked the results, and my son wouldn't have, either.  I am responsible for the results in my life, because I am responsible for my choices.  I chose to change the way the conversation was going, and therefore I got the results I wanted.  

Back to my morning schedule.  Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.  That list represents my worthy ideal for a morning routine.  When I do it, I know that I have shown up for my day.  When I don't, I seem to feel unprepared for what the day has to throw at me.  This isn't about being obedient to what other people have told me to do.  This is about showing up for myself.  And I like the results.