Give Yourself Permission to Own Your Values

A few days ago I received a text from a friend asking how I was doing. As soon as I saw it, I remembered this person sent me an email with the same purpose almost a month ago that I had forgotten to respond to.

I was immediately flooded with guilt. How rude of me!? Someone takes time out of their day to check in on me and I don’t even respond.

But this is nothing new.

It often takes me days — sometimes even weeks — to respond to peoples’ messages. Even those of my good friends and people I care about deeply.

I could try to tell you I’m a “bad texter” but I’m not. It’s a quite simple task. And even though I often tack a “Sorry I’ve been so busy…” onto the beginning of my overdue message, I know I had at least 5 free minutes within the past week to type out a response or return a call.

The real truth is, relationships aren’t that high on my priority list. I love and care for my boyfriend and parents dearly, but outside of that, I find them energetically draining.

I have an inspired mission I’m focused on, a business I’m building, and a self I’m working on knowing and loving more and more each day.

Those are the things I currently value most. And I need vitality to do all of those things so my health becomes a priority by default.

But outside of that?

I could care less to keep up with family traditions and gossip. I often skip out on social commitments to stay home and work on my business or self. I’d rather pay for someone’s Uber home from the airport before I drove two hours to go pick them up.

Because I don’t care? Not quite.

To any of my friends and family reading this, please don’t take it personally. I care about you deeply. I love you long time.

It’s just not where I’m most inspired to dedicate my time and energy. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but days go by pretty fast and we don’t have time for everything. Especially the things we’re not inspired to do.

And, most importantly, I’d be doing more than the two of us a disservice if I dishonored my own values and bumped you up on my priority list when really that’s not what my soul desires.

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