As I’m typing this right now, an InstantCart shopper at Whole Foods is shopping for my groceries, gathering up the items I ordered and packing them up to be delivered to me. This is one of the many delivery services I’ve been using since my move to Austin. Some of the other delivery services I’ve used include UberEATS, Amazon Prime Now and Lyft.
When I first heard about these services, I dismissed them. Because I’ve always acquaited convenience with being lazy.
I have two arms and two legs and all four of those limbs work. I have a car with gas in it that can drive places. I’m young, healthy and in great shape. There’s no reason why I can’t get my ass in the car and go to the grocery store.
Except if I had done that, I wouldn’t be writing this right now. And I really wanted to write this.
That’s when I started realizing just how much time I can save if I stop trying to do everything and instead just focus on the important stuff–the stuff I truly want to be spending my time on.
It was a serious mindset shift for me to finally accept that making use of convenience-based services doesn’t mean I’m lazy. It means I’m efficient. It means I know what I get the most return on investment for when it comes to my time.
It means I have my priorities straight.
Being at this place with my mindset didn’t happen overnight. It took years of daily reprogramming and defusing of my old beliefs and ways of thinking.
But I finally got to a place where I’ve learned that it’s easier to just throw money at the things I don’t want to be doing (like grocery shopping, going to pick up take out or cleaning my apartment), so I can free up more time for the things I do want to be doing.
When I focus my time on the things that truly matter, I go to bed at night feeling fulfilled and like I lived my purpose that day. And I also get to support the people and companies that provide the services I use to be able to stay focused on the things that matter to me.
Convenience is not lazy, it’s efficient. And yeah, it will cost a little extra, but the extra is worth it to free up your the time and energy for the things you truly want to be doing.
Now instead of sitting in traffic driving to the grocery store and then bumping carts with all the dozens of other people who are buying their groceries right now and then waiting in line to check out and then sitting in traffic again to get back home, I can just tap a few buttons on my Instacart app and all of that stuff is done for me.
I get to spend my time writing, and the groceries will show up at my door within 2 hours of placing my order. Done and done.
Being efficient is important to me these days as it becomes more and more real to me how short life can really be and how much time we waste on nonsense every day.
I’m here to make a huge impact in the world and to create my art and to put it out there for others to enjoy. So whatever I can do to free up more time for me to do that, I’m doing it.
This is a breath of fresh air for me.
For so long I made myself wrong for wanting things to be easy. I avoided things that would free up my time and give me more ease and convenience in my life because I believed it was lazy.
But now I see it different. Now I see that anything I can do to give myself more time and energy and space for my creative work in the world as a blessing and I use it to my full advantage.
I’m the furthest thing from lazy. While I may not want to go pick up my own take out, shop for my own groceries or clean my own apartment, I’m always creating and writing and bringing my ideas to life and with so much ease.
That is worth everything to me.
Dream life or bust,
jen
