Going With the Flow

This post is by Tami Rodriguez.

I’m a planner…always have been. I probably always will be. I think one thing “planning people” have in common is liking to change up their plans! You’ll see many of us with new or different planners every year and always full of new ideas for systems and routines. I don’t know what it is, it’s just how we’re made. 

Another thing we tend to have in common is a high-strung-usually-on-the-verge-of-stressed-out personality. Sorry—but you know it’s true. It’s why we plan. It helps us control the stress in the world around us. 

In the past few months, I’ve really wanted to change this about myself. I want to be less high strung, have more peace, not feel the need to have everything planned out—like one of my best friends who just goes with the flow so easily. She doesn’t have notebooks or lists or anything! I can barely fathom that! It seems so wonderful. I tried it…it didn’t work! LOL! But I have learned a few things in the process. I found a bit of a middle ground for now and it’s a good beginning. 

One of the first things I did was get rid of my planner. GASP!! I know. I wouldn’t believe it if you told me either! But relax…I replaced it with a “sorta planner”. I ordered a planner from youtuber, Megan Fox Unlocked. It’s called The Any Day Every Day Block it Off Planner. It’s not a calendar or time schedule, it’s simply a notes page, two lists and then a two page spread for every week with three sections per day. You can time block or list or whatever works for you. It is undated so if I don’t need it, I don’t use it. 

It has helped me stop trying to meticulously plan my days and then keep up with said plan when life throws its curve balls at me. I just list out or brain dump what’s on my mind for the week and then work through it as I go, letting God lead as I follow. Well, at least that’s what I’m trying to do!  

Instead of having a specific time schedule and fifty to-do’s per day I now stick to very basic flow and then add in what the day allows. For example a few days before writing this I planned to have a super productive day and when I went to switch my first load of laundry—feeling like a champion since it was only 8am—I found my washer died. 

Like dead. 

Still full of water. 

Soon after that, I got a message from my daughter’s doctor that a test they wanted to order was probably not covered by insurance, and I should call before we proceeded. You can guess how my day went after that. Not at ALL how I had planned! In the past a day like that, I still would’ve tried to keep up with my to-do’s and plans and been SO stressed out, but this time, I let them drop. All of those things will be there tomorrow…and the next day. 

Learning my value is not in my doing is a big life lesson I’m learning right now. Also learning to look at my day and ask God how HE wants me to head into it, is helping a lot as well. Where does HE want my focus to be? What is on HIS list for me for this day? I’m sorry to say I have spent most of my days not asking, just plowing ahead and wondering why I felt like I was drowning. I am so slow…but I am learning! 

How can you lessen the pressure on yourself this week? Do you have the habit of asking God how to go about the coming day? Try it. Let God lead you—His ways are so much better than our own. 

Tami Rodriguez has been married to her high school sweetheart for 29 years and has 5 children plus a lovely daughter in law! She has homeschooled for 18 years and still has 5 more to go...send coffee! Tami is a lifelong learner who loves to study God’s Word and to teach on it whenever given the opportunity.  You will find her living a simple life as “just a mom who likes to write” and sometimes over on instagram @rodfamily007.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash