“yes” Training: Doing My Daily Duties

Good Morning!

As promised, today we are going to talk about that last question for Examining Yourself from the book “How to Make Great Decisions”. “Are You Doing Your Daily Duties?”. [If you’re interested in reading Father Mike’s Book “How to Make Great Decisions” you can order it here and I will get a small commission from Amazon at no extra cost to you!] It sounds like a question we should be saying “yes” to every day anyways, but it turns out that is way less common than you’d expect. For me, being able to confidently answer “yes” to this question has taken the most time, dedication, and patience.

Very often I would rather be in any stage of life than the one that I am in. I used to always long for the future or the past and was very rarely in the present moment. For this reason, a lot of my time would be spent trying to force myself into a reality that simply was not my own. In the process I would also often neglect the things I was called to be doing right now. From the outside, it appeared that I was extremely productive and ambitious. The truth of the matter was I was running away from who God was calling me to be in the moment- thinking I knew something that would be even better. 

That is why I like to call what I am about to share with you “Yes training”. It is simple. But it can also be ridiculously difficult. 

“Yes” Training

For me, doing my Daily Duties is acknowledging the roles God has given to me in this moment and saying “yes” to His will by being the best at those roles that I can be. By saying lots of little “yes”s each day, we are training ourselves to say “yes” to God when bigger things come our way. The way I look at it, there are five steps:

1. Identify My Roles
2. Identify the Daily Duties of each Role
3. Have a Reality Check
4. Persistence, Patience, Trust 
5. Adjust

So let’s take a closer look at each one…

Identify My Roles

This is the first step. If we are saying “yes” to the roles God has given to us in this moment we obviously have to start by knowing what those Roles are. Take a minute to think about it and make a list. Here’s what mine currently looks like:

• Daughter of God
• Member of my Family
• Caretaker of my Body
• Caretaker of my Mind
• Caretaker of my Environment
• Student of Stonehill College
• Caretaker of my Personal Finances
• Owner of my Small Business
• Caretaker of my Plants

Each Role is different and the list is subject to change (see “adjustment”). Most of them are simple common sense and it’s meant to be that way- this isn’t something complicated.

Identify the Daily Duties of Each Role

The next step is to make a mini sub-list for each one of the Roles you listed. Think abot what it looks like to be a good _____ (whatever your role is). What are all of the things that person would do each day? Write those things down and repeat that for each Role on your list. Some of your lists may be long like my “Caretaker of Body” list:

• Eat Breakfast
• Eat Lunch
• Eat Dinner
• Drink Water
• Workout
• Stretch
• Shower
• Teeth Care (twice a day)
• Hair Care (twice a day)
• Skin Care (twice a day)

Or some of your lists might be shorter (only 1-3 things) like my “Daughter of God” list:

• Listen to Bible In a Year
• Go to Holy Mass
• Be a Witness

In total, all of my Daily Duties lists combined equal a little less than 40 tasks I am supposed to complete each day. That may seem daunting. Sometimes it is. When I started, there were some days I could only mark off 5-10 things as completed. Most of the things though are basic everyday things. In the beginning, I thought “off course I do those things everyday” but when I started to track it, I realized there were many days I would accidentally neglect even the most basic tasks. Which is what brings me to the next step…

Have a Reality Check

It’s easy to say “of course I’m doing all those things” I’m fulfilling my roles. What I’ve found however, is I would do much less to fulfill those roles than I thought I was doing. Usually it would be because I was using my time for other things that weren’t actually a part of any of my current roles. The real game changer for me was a habit tracker. 

I made a checkable list in my Artful Agenda (an amazing calendar app I discovered earlier this year) that I am able to go through every day. Each day starts fresh: all the same boxes to check. If I check off everything on the list that means I can say “yes” to that “Daily Duties” question. However, being able to do that didn’t happen overnight for me…

Persistence, Patience, and Trust

I developed my Daily Duties list just over a year ago and the first day I was able to check off every single thing was less than three weeks ago. Even then, being able to do that hasn’t become an everyday thing. Here and there I will have a 2-3 day streak, but most days I’m still not checking 2-5 things. I say this because I don’t want you to look at your Reality Check and become discouraged. If you are anything like me there are going to be a lot of days with a lot of empty boxes- especially in the beginning. In fact, you can head on over to my instagram post to see what my Habit Tracker has been looking like this summer. Spoiler: it isn’t perfect, but there is steady improvement.

To check a box off every day means to have made a habit of it. Habits take time to form. And a lot of effort. Even just one can feel impossible, so forming 20-30 new habits is going to take time. A LOT of time. BE PERSISTENT in your pursuit. BE PATIENT with yourself. And TRUST that you will see the day when all these things are second nature. Oh! And one more thing…

Adjust

As you continue to grow and your life continues to evolve, so will your lists- both of Roles and of Daily Duties. Be open to this change. Sometimes it’s taking on a new Role (like me becoming a business owner). Sometimes it’s simply an adjustment to what being a good ____ looks like. For example, right now my list of Daily Duties for “student” consists of one thing: Check my email. However, during the semesters the list is much longer including things like “attend class” “study” “hand in work on time”. Part of saying “yes” to God’s will is being open to different stages of life and its natural changes.

A Bit of Advice and Encouragement

If you decide to embark on this Journey of “yes”s know that it will not be easy. This is not an instant gratification sort of thing- not even close. This is the long haul. This is the end-game. This is something you will have to continuously choose to pursue every single day. But with all of that, know that it will be so beyond worth it. The amount of peace and joy it will bring to you through the struggles is unlike anything else. 

Know that you are not alone. I, and so many others are right alongside you. Chasing those “yes”s and watching ourselves slowly grow with each one. That is why I started this- to give encouragement, comradery, and community to those brave enough to pursue God’s will, one small step at a time.

What you can expect this week

Later this week we will look at the two biggest things that have helped me on my journey so far: routines. Routines have been the best way for me to build good habits. It’s taken me a while to develop routines that work best for me- it’s basically a lot of trial and error- so I am super excited to humbly share what I’ve discovered with all of you! If you are interested in the calendar app I mentioned earlier, I’ll leave a link for it here and be sure to use my referral code: RE409929

As always, feel free to reach out via the connect page, instagram, or even Pinterest! I would love to hear about YOU and YOUr journey: YOUr roles, YOUr duties, and YOUr struggles+successes! We were never meant to do this alone, so lets Journey Together 🙂

-me

[elijah jane]