This post is a transcript of an episode of my podcast, “Women Who Know.” This episode originally aired on September 30, 2022.
Hello my friends! First off, I want to apologize right now for the sound of my voice. My family and I were on vacation in Disney World last week, and at the end of the trip, 3 of my 4 kids and my husband got sick! I got sick the day after we got home and I’m dealing with a sore throat. But I still want to record this podcast, so I’m sorry if my voice sounds weird. This will be a pretty short episode because I can’t talk for very long. We’ll see how it goes 🙂
trip to Disney World
So I mentioned that we went to Disney World, and it was a big trip for us. We were gone for 10 days! It was our 10 year anniversary trip, and we had so much fun – but man, it was hard! We went with my in-laws, and they were able to help us now and then, but even still, Robbie and I were so exhausted every night. Four young kids at Disney is no joke.
One of my favorite things that Robbie and I did to prepare for this trip was to make decisions ahead of time. And that’s basically what I want to talk about today – pre-decisions. I don’t even know if that’s a real term or not, but I like it so I’m keeping it. Anyways, we made a lot of decisions about how we were going to spend our time well ahead of when we left. We chose which parks we were going to on which days, and we chose our top favorite rides and how we would navigate through each park so that we didn’t back-track. We even made decisions about what foods we were going to order so that when it came time to order it, we didn’t have to spend time staring at the menu and wasting all our decision-making energy. Decision overwhelm is a real thing, and I lose my capacity to make decisions pretty quickly, especially on vacations when there are so many decisions to make! I think it’s pretty common for moms to run out of decision-making power pretty quickly. Kids demand lots of decisions haha!
So, we wrote down all these things and I had an itinerary for each day that I printed and would look at anytime we needed to remember where to go next or what we wanted to do. Obviously we had to be flexible with it because I couldn’t account for everything that would happen or every stop my kids would want to make, but it was nice to have some decisions made ahead of time.
I don’t say this to toot my own horn, but I bring it up because this has been a principle that has helped me with everything in life. When I make the decision ahead of time, it’s much easier to stick to that decision and have the energy to make the decisions that I can’t plan for. It’s like meal planning – if you make the decision ahead of time of what you’re going to make for a meal, then you don’t have to spend so much energy deciding what to make that night…and then it ends up being 6:30 by the time you pick something, and then you don’t eat until 7:30 or 8…just speaking from experience here haha.
chores
I also like doing this for chores! My kids are old enough to do a few chores around the house, and I used to try to think of chores for them to do each day. But a few months ago, I made a chore chart that tells them what chores they do on each day of the week, and it has made my life so much easier. They don’t ask me what their chores are for the day, and I don’t have to use up my decision-making capacity in order to think of them.
Another way this principle is helpful is with deciding ahead of time to NOT do something. Decide now that you will never try substances that are not good for you. Decide now to never watch pornography. It’s a lot easier in a moment of temptation to make a good choice when you’ve already made the decision ahead of time.
come and stay
And the final way I want to talk about this principle is with the gospel. Decide now to “stay in the boat” as President Ballard has said. Choose now to stay on the gospel path no matter what life throws at you, and it will be so much easier for you to do so. President Howard W. Hunter once said, “There is good reason to make our decision now to serve the Lord. On this Sunday morning, when the complications and temptations of life are somewhat removed, and when we have the time and more of an inclination to take an eternal perspective, we can more clearly evaluate what will bring us the greatest happiness in life. We should decide now, in the light of the morning, how we will act when the darkness of night and when the storms of temptation arrive.” (Hunter, Howard W. October 1982. “Commitment to God.”)
greater capacity
I know that as we make decisions in advance, we will have greater capacity to choose to follow the Lord and to complete everyday tasks that can sometimes seem overwhelming. I am far from perfect at this, and I’m still trying to implement this more fully into my life so that things go more smoothly in my home. But when I have used this tactic, I have been able to focus more and use my decision-making capacity for other things outside of daily, monotonous tasks, and I don’t run out of my decision-making capacity by like 1 p.m. haha. We can also choose to keep our covenants in advance, to resist temptations in advance, and to stay in the boat in advance of when life throws storms at us.
Okay you guys, that’s what I have for today! I am going to go drink a ton of orange juice and try to rest under 4 kids climbing all over me haha. Oh, and this weekend is General Conference so I hope you receive the inspiration and light you are searching for. Have a great week and I’ll talk to you next week!
