Intentional

Hello blogging friends! Long time no see.  I've never typed that sentence out before, and I have to admit I don't really like it in writing. No see? Huh.

    Anyway, life has been full and busy. Christmas is always a busy time, but with a holiday work schedule thrown in there, I have completely lost track of what day it is, when I am supposed to sleep, and when to eat which meal ( I had tilapia and cheerios for 'breakfast' the other day.) BTW, what is the definition of breakfast? When you wake up? The morning meal? When you eat cereal? Does it only consist of the traditional 'breakfast' foods? Deep thoughts here. Make me feel popular and comment on your definition of breakfast below!
    Anyway.... Thank you to those who have been praying for my sleeping schedule, it's been much better the last week and a half. A trick for future night shift workers- melatonin works. I only used it a couple of times, but it seemed to get me out of a bad rhythm. It's also possible that taking a pill just tricked me into thinking that I was sleepy.... I guess I'll never know. ;)

    Something I've been realizing lately is how important it is to be intentional. I've reached the point at work where I can go into a twelve hour shift and make it through even if I have ridiculously challenging patients, virtually no sleep, or a really bad headache. I can push through and survive. *Insert round of applause because that's a necessary but challenging accomplishment.* The downside to this is that I might be tempted to go into survival mode even when that's not necessary.
    I might have mentioned this in a previous post, but I can tell the difference in the way I care for people when I had an intentional devotional time with God before my shift and prayed for Him to help me glorify Him through my actions. Another habit I've tried to start is taking a deep breath before I walk into a patient's room and smiling intentionally. This puts me at ease which leads to better care and makes my patient feel like they are receiving the best care possible. Unfortunately, sometimes I'm so busy, I forget.
   
    In short, what I've learned is that I can coast through a shift and do everything that is required, but everything can be improved by being intentional. Some of you might be thinking, "well duh!" but it takes a lot of effort to be intentional. However, the results are worth it. Now that I've identified this concept, it's helped me make some resolutions as I head into the new year. I want to be intentional at work, but I also want to be intentional in some other areas of my life. Here are a few things that I'm going to work on that all of you can hold me accountable to:
  -As someone who is perfectly content to spend her day off running errands by myself, going to restaurants or movie theaters alone, or binge watching Netflix, I'm going to be more intentional about spending time with other living and breathing creatures. People need people.
- I'm going to be more intentional about my time with God. I'm really quite good at routines and reading my Bible consistently. However, am I confining God's opportunity to speak to me during the ten to twenty minutes I set aside each day?
-I am going to be intentional about joining some sort of small group somewhere with someone about something.
- I am going to be intentional about my resources- mainly my time and my money. I have been blessed with so much, and much is expected of me.

I don't want to turn this into a preaching type of blog, but I challenge you in the coming year to be intentional. It's difficult and takes more effort than survival mode, but I think it's worth it. Bring it on 2015!!!

Over and out
-C-