Choosing Your Battles: A Challenge in Managing Yourself

Hills to Die On

Daily Inspiration

By John H. Sklare, Ed.D, Lifescript Personal Coach

Published April 07, 2010

 

Life is truly a battle! It has a way of testing our physical and emotional armor daily, and it’s more intense for some than it is for others. For some, their battles are distant and involve very little distraction or life interruption. For others, every day seems like a life and death struggle on the front line. Choosing which battles to fight will, to a large degree, determine how happy and content you are with your life. My message today concerns how you decide which battles are worth fighting.

In the Marines, they ask a simple question before committing to battle: “Is this the hill that I want to die on?” I suggest you ask yourself the same question when considering entering the fray. In short, I think we all spend too much time fighting battles that are inconsequential to our lives. Too many fights can leave you battle-weary, angry and emotionally wounded. My question today is this: How good are you at picking the right hills to die on in your life?

Wishing You Great Health,
Dr. John H. Sklare

 

My Thoughts

Have you ever heard of that question "is this the hill that I want to die on?  

For a while, I wondered why the question sounded very new to me.  And then, I remembered, I was a self-confessed war freak.  And I was proud of it.

Embarrassing, but true.  A good part of my "old life" was spent fighting.  Fighting for everything and anything I thought was my right, my privilege, "mine". Definitely, an issue of not being able to "manage yourself".

How selfish!  And how full of pride - that awful, awful sin that makes us "die" on "hills" that should not have been our "graves".

Lucky for me, we have a God of second chances, a God who repairs, a redemptive God.

I still don't ask the question "is this the hill that I want to die on?".  But when I feel like putting on my "battle gears", on the verge of showing that I have not learned anything about "managing yourself", I stop and ask this question - "does God want me to fight or sit this one out?". 

I always get the same answer - "It's not your battle but Mine".