Developing a rule of life

 There are many self-help books that can assist us to know ourselves better. They seem to address the myriad issues that can besiege us in daily life. How do we become motivated? What helps us to focus on what is important? Who do we listen to and where do we believe our life is heading? Often there is an emphasis on developing habits and avoiding the ways that we can self-sabotage ourselves by taking on too many goals. There can be a sense in which we want to have it all with the minimum effort. Yet when we become disappointed and our resolutions melt away we can be left wondering what will make a difference. I believe this is where a rule of life can be helpful as it can embed who we are, whose we are and what is our mission in life.

This may take some journaling or just noticing whose voice we listen to the most. This can be easily monitored by looking at our daily activities, our conversations, the media that we most engage with, and what we respond to straight away. This allows us to see what influences us to become present and grabs our attention. Often writing a list as a way of reflection can show us what grabs our focus and what motivates us. This can often be noticed by the voices we retain and those that become tuned out. 

This listening then orientates us towards another who is significant to us and helps to guide our direction in life. This is where we become people of prayer who attend to God and our neighbor. We become aware of how we are known more than what we know. We start to be seen as a person who have been created in the image and likeness of God. Our spirituality starts to be both body and spirit and allows us to encounter another person as they are. Just as we allow God to gaze upon us we start to see the world through God's eyes.

This ultimately starts to direct how we use our time, our talents, and our treasure. We start to see them as gifts to be shared rather than as possessions to be amassed. Our lives seek to give expression to who I am and whose I am. We start to see ourselves as less distracted and dissipated by the events of life. We become more focused and available to others. This becomes a way of being not just a list of things to be done.