When I first started only working 30-hour weeks, I discovered a problem I genuinely did not anticipate:

I had no idea what to do with all the space.

Give me an unreasonable deadline, 14 things that need done, three kids who need something, a client problem to solve, and approximately 37 minutes to make it all happen?

I AM YOUR GIRL. 😂

Give me an entire open day to think, write, create, and work at my own pace?

Apparently THAT was stressful.

I would clear my schedule… and then fill it RIGHT back up.

I had spent so many years functioning inside tight timelines, according to strict standards, and under immense amounts of responsibility, and alllll that pressure had become the primary way I knew how to access my capability.

Space felt unfamiliar, so I just kept recreating urgency.

These days, my work looks remarkably different. This morning was a perfect example.

I started around 6:45. I read the entire book of Galatians (I’ve started working through Paul’s letters chronologically.)

I finished another book. (Fr. James Martin’s Becoming Who You Are - I’ll share more about it in next week’s podcast)

I then journaled, wrote a blog post, prepared everything I needed for the content I was recording today.

And then I ate a late breakfast, showered, hung out a bit with my husband, knocked out

And I still had plenty of room in my day to be available at 3:30 to take my son to baseball practice.

At one point around 10:30, I remember thinking:

This almost feels too good to be true.

But it IS the truth.

I’ve learned how to prioritize the most important part of my work- the DEEP work that my Professor Gift gets so much joy from doing.

Monday and Friday mornings are protected for my deep work, where I read, research, and journal, before diving into creative work of podcasting, writing, and creating content in the afternoon.

Tuesday through Thursday, I do my darndest to block off at least an hour in the morning before getting into client tasks, coaching/strategy calls, or operational tasks.

And if a Monday or Friday gets claimed for a family need, or something urgent comes up?

I MOVE things in the middle of the week to make space for it.

And about 90% of the time, I finish work by 4pm- because I have 3 high schoolers with full calendars, and they matter WAY more to me than my ability to squeeze another three hours of productivity out of myself.

In case you’re thinking “Sure, Lee, you and your husband are running an agency with a full client roster AND an academy like that during the week, so you MUST be working weekends…”

Nope.

In fact, several months ago, God nudged me to begin fully honoring the Sabbath, where I close the computer, stop checking Telegram and client messages, and leave email alone for a full day.

And once I accomplished that? He led me to experiment with taking TWO full days away from work.

When I opened my computer Monday afternoon, I realized it had been two and a half days since I touched it last.

Here’s the part that would have been very difficult for an earlier version of me to believe:

We’re producing some of the strongest client outcomes AND generating the most consistent revenue we’ve had in about three years, while I’m “only” working 30–40 hours most weeks.

And there is SO much more space.

Part of faithfully stewarding my limitations has been learning that I don’t need to manufacture urgency to access my gifts.

I can create conditions that give my gifts room to breathe, so the internal and external fruits can flourish.

These days, whenever I have “extra” space and I start to feel the urgency creep back in, I practice identifying two key pieces of information:

What would bring me joy to work on in this timeframe?

And…

What, if I completed it sooner, would make the biggest difference today AND over the long term?

Knowing I’m a Professor helps explain why those first few hours of reading, researching, connecting ideas, contemplating, and writing feel so deeply satisfying to me.

Formation has required me to learn how to build a life where that gift has room to function well.

If you don’t have the Primary Motivation Gift of Professor like me, you’ll likely have different formation needs.

• A Builder may need more room to act, complete, and see tangible progress.
• A Coach may need more meaningful opportunities to participate in growth rather than spending every day maintaining what already exists.
• A CEO may need more reflection time to see direction and coordinate wisely rather than remaining buried in implementation.
• A Consoler may need more relational space that allows genuine presence and connection.
• A Judge may need more solitude to examine alignment carefully rather than continually reacting to someone else’s urgency.
• A Steward may need more margin to thoughtfully allocate what has been entrusted to them.

And each of us still has to discern what faithful development looks like in our actual season, responsibilities, relationships, and life.

That is why Grow In Your Gifts™ goes so much deeper than identifying your gift.

We’re learning how to steward the actual human being carrying it, including your capacity, limitations, current responsibilities, habits, and current season of life.

And (perhaps most importantly) the conditions that allow you to use what God has entrusted to you to produce increasingly better fruit.

​JOIN GROW IN YOUR GIFTS™​

Faithfully rooting for you,

Lee

P.S. Still unsure which Primary Motivational Gift is yours? You can take the free assessment here: DISCOVER YOUR PRIMARY MOTIVATIONAL GIFT​