Inspiration: Know your limits

Here is a funny example of what happens when you don't know what you are volunteering yourself for. I love this comic and I cut it out of the paper 6 years ago to remind me why it is important to know your limitations.

I try operate within my limits. For example I didn't work during the last 4 months of my pregnancy. I didn't work because I knew by the time I found a new job and was trained I would probably be on bed rest. However, I couldn't help feel guilty about not working - especially when I wasn't on bed rest yet. In October I was listening to conference and heard the talk by Elder Uchtdorf. Among other things he said:

"Have you ever been in an airplane and experienced turbulence? The most common cause of turbulence is a sudden change in air movement causing the aircraft to pitch, yaw, and roll. While planes are built to withstand far greater turbulence than anything you would encounter on a regular flight, it still may be disconcerting to passengers.

What do you suppose pilots do when they encounter turbulence? A student pilot may think that increasing speed is a good strategy because it will get them through the turbulence faster. But that may be the wrong thing to do. Professional pilots understand that there is an optimum turbulence penetration speed that will minimize the negative effects of turbulence. And most of the time that would mean to reduce your speed. The same principle applies also to speed bumps on a road.

Therefore, it is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course, and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions.

This is a simple but critical lesson to learn. It may seem logical when put in terms of trees or turbulence, but it’s surprising how easy it is to ignore this lesson when it comes to applying these principles in our own daily lives. When stress levels rise, when distress appears, when tragedy strikes, too often we attempt to keep up the same frantic pace or even accelerate, thinking somehow that the more rushed our pace, the better off we will be.

From this talk I learned that it is okay to slow down and take things easy sometimes. It reminded me that I was doing something far more important that working and earning money - I was helping our twins to grow. I'm certain that the girls would have been born a lot earlier if I had been dealing with the stresses from a job (especially the one I quit).

To read all of Elder Uchtdorf's talk click here. To see the website where I found the comic click here.