What is holding you hostage? or Not!

“ If I need things to be a certain way, I’m held hostage by them” Jonny Wilkenson

I had to laugh when I first read this quote because I am a person who really likes routines. I like things to be a certain way. It allows me to be productive and structured. Otherwise, I can be all over the place. Never thinking that there is a flip side to every coin. This saying is the flip side that I have a blind spot too. Do you have a blind spot when it comes to routines and what we might be missing out on? Once I stopped to think about how my routines might be holding me hostage and preventing me from doing other things I had to really think about it. I think that some of the routines I have are great and allow me to be hyper-productive and then there are some that get in my way of allowing alternative options into my life. I struggle with that a little bit. More so on the personal level. Allowing people to interrupt the routines that I enjoy and that is part of who I am. I think another way of saying this is I am set in my ways. I know that about myself and struggle with it. The older I get and the more routines that I have in my life the less I want them to be interrupted. Though I know that I am missing out on things. There is nothing wrong with missing out on things. You need to know what to say NO to. So it would have to be pretty important for me to say YES. 

That’s another way of looking at that quote. Through the lens that if you need or rather want things to be a certain way maybe that is because they are a priority in your life. Maybe you're not being held hostage you just know that you can’t do everything otherwise nothing gets done. There is a quote by Jim Collins, “If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any,” 

So which is it. That you are being held hostage and not enjoying life to its fullest or that you are focused on what is important in your life and that is all that matters. You don't have FOMO. Maybe that is part of being an adult? Which would bring me back to the article I wrote on Adulthood. If you didn't read it now would be a good time to check it out. Maybe being able to say NO to things is part of being an adult. There will always be other things that you could be doing. At some point, you need to start saying NO. 

Joshua