Welcome to the infinitely precious podcast produced by infinitely precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Hello, beloved. It's me, James, and it's time for another episode of the Infinitely Precious podcast. It is really delightful to be with you. I'm so glad that you are my companion on this journey. I hope if you find this meaningful that you'll share this with others.

Please feel free to do so. So today, I decided to talk a little bit about what it's like when it just feels like there's a lot on your plate and you can't quite get it all done. What can you do about that? How to deal with that reality? It has felt that way recently for me on several different occasions.

There's just been a lot of things on my plate. Today was to have been a very busy day. Something changed in the middle of the day and something that was on my schedule had to drop off the schedule which was actually a gift. It was rescheduled for another day which works out just fine. But when we get very busy and there are a lot of things on our calendar, and for a lot of you who listen, I suspect that's the way your life runs.

It certainly has been for me for a while that way. Lots and lots of things on the calendar. What can you do in the midst of those very challenges trying to figure out what to do? Things that are already on the calendar, things that you've already agreed to do before you even have the opportunity to say no to some things, to clear the calendar some. What are some ways to deal with it?

Well, first of all, I try to start my day and maybe this will be an example for you. I try to start my day in a grounded space. That is, I sit down and I do my morning meditation, my morning sit where I try to let go of the things that might very well become struggles within me. Let go of every thought so that I can just kind of be open, just present to the moment. And the practice of letting go becomes the practice of letting go throughout the day.

So, I practice letting go. The second thing that I do, maybe this will be helpful for you, is I take stock of the day. I take a look at what's on the schedule, what needs to be done, and where my attention needs to be. It doesn't hurt for me to kind of look into the day and try to figure out what is coming. But once I've seen all the things that are coming and some of them are then in the back of my mind, I make up my mind, this is the third thing, I make up my mind to take each moment as it comes, one moment at a time.

I don't fast forward to my three appointment. I don't fast forward even until my 12:30 appointment, even if I'm concerned that it's going to be contentious or concerning or whatever it may be. I don't fast forward to whatever's coming in the evening. Because once I've borrowed all of that stress from the whole day, then that's where I am. I've seen what my schedule is at the beginning of the day.

I'm aware of it. But I can't let myself be focused on every piece of it and certainly not one that's not going to happen until much later in the day. What I can do is be in the moment that I'm in. What can I do with this moment that's been given me? And then when I arrive at whatever appointments, things that are scheduled into my day one by one, I can only take them as they come.

Now, I think we forget that a lot of times. I certainly forget that a lot of times and I let myself be caught in the stress of the whole day as opposed and it hasn't even been stressful yet. It's just looking at the list and thinking how will it get done? And at the end of the day, I'll look back and I'll figure out how anything got done or if anything got done. But fretting about it is only going to raise my anxiety level and keep me from doing what I can in the moments that I have that are given me.

How can I stand the post that's been given me? I do it one appointment, one moment, one breath at a time. I can't do it any faster. I could do it maybe a little slower, but I can't do it any faster. So taking it as it comes, letting the day arise moment by moment.

And then perhaps as I don't want to say the crowning piece, but the piece that matters for me is instead of imagining how am I going to make the 09:00 perfect, great, excellent, and then the 10:00 perfect, great, excellent, I've talked about perfect before and whether I believe there is such a thing, particularly for human beings. Complete whole is a better word, not perfect. How can, and with all of these things on the table that none of which can come off the table, is giving the best I have in any one of those moments enough? Can I accept that I might only be at 80% capacity by the time I get to my 03:00 appointment? By the time I record the infinitely precious podcast?

Can I am I willing to recognize that 80% is what I've got at 03:00? It might not even be 80%, might be 60. Am I willing to accept that I'm giving my best in this moment, the best that I've got to give and to move on from there. This idea, it really sabotages us, this idea that we can produce, constantly produce, produce, produce, and that everything we produce will be at 100%. That it will be amazing every single time.

Most of us have those moments when we produce some really good things. And then we have some moments when we don't produce quite as well. The important thing is can we show up as ourselves in the moment as best we can, as best we can in the moment that has given us. Can we show up? And that is what I determined to do today.

And to be satisfied with showing up in the best way I could. Like right now, I've been through a number of meetings and other kinds of things and I know that I want to produce the Infinitely Precious podcast. I even had the debate with myself. Do I say no, we just can't produce it this week? And the answer was no, I can produce it this week.

It simply will not be perhaps the best I've ever done. And I'm okay with that. It's not that I'm giving you less. It's that I'm giving you the best I've got right now. And trusting that through grace and the spirit, it will be enough.

Perhaps you need to hear, maybe you're having one of those moments too by the time you hear the Infinitely Precious podcast, or perhaps the next day afterwards, or sometime later this month or this year, you have one of those days and you beat yourself up. That is we are so good at that. Beat ourselves up because we couldn't quite be all that. When in fact we showed up, we gave the best that we had, and that's all that can be asked for us. So, stop, catch your breath, step back for a moment.

If you're having one of those chaotic days like I am, perhaps recognize it's okay to not have the best of whatever it is you do this time, That it's enough to have the best you've got right now. That it's all that God might expect of you. And perhaps if it was all you expected of you in this moment, it would be okay. The universe would still continue to exist. And then just as I practiced letting go to start my day, can you practice letting go at the end of the day of the things that weren't quite what you hoped they would be?

Maybe there are some of them that you absolutely feel like you have to do again. You have to go at it another way or do something different. And I may at the end of this podcast, do the exact same thing. Although I don't think I will. Can you let go?

I've given my best and I'm going to let go of it and trust that what I've done is enough. It's enough. We are not good at that word. But I want to tell you, my friend, you are enough, and so am I. You are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Don't let anyone tell you any different. Certainly don't tell yourself anything different because to do so would be a lie. You are indeed a gift just for the person that you are. So thankful that you could join me today. Wish you all the best.

And until the next time, have a great week.