Part-Timers

Something I’ve become painfully aware of and find…

Well…

Frankly baffling…

It’s the part-timer mentality…

Its everywhere I look…

Infomercials on TV talk about earning a full time income for working on a part-time basis…

Part-time parents – a mother or father divorced from their mate who only sees their kids on the weekends and expect the “other” people in their lives to fully raise them.

There are part-time spouses –who only manage to show up in their marriages when its convenient for them or there is nothing else going on.

There are part-time workers who think that they are fully justified expecting high salaries, fringe benefits and all the perks, but cannot be counted upon to see something through from beginning to end…

There are part-time Christians – C(hristmas) and E(aster) Christians, or Sunday church goers who will gladly throw God right out the window on a Tuesday morning of their mood dictates it…or, who call upon God only when they are in need and never any other time.

There are part-time friends who can only be available for the fun stuff…or only when they need you to listen to them because things are difficult in their lives right now.

There is part-time attention, where its somehow ok to take a mental trip in the middle of a conversation, lesson, lecture or activity if one is not completely entertained the entire time…

And this is what I find baffling…all these people running around with their part-time mentality think somehow that they are entitled to full-time compensation and benefits for their half-effort approach to everything.

And I have to ask…what the heck is everybody thinking?????

Here is the deal…

If you really look into the entrepreneurial world, you aren’t going to find people making millions without working their butts off (unless they win the lottery, that is)…they don’t work 20 hours a week right out of the chute and make their millions. They SLAVE over their businesses until they reach a point where the business is returning some reward...There really is no such thing as an overnight success…and if you believe there is, you are fooling yourself! (Don’t translate this to mean that making millions can't be done this way..I'm just saying, don't think its all play and no work to your great fortune!)

Part-time parents are raising children with wholly incomplete sense of the world…They don’t know who they are or what they are supposed to do…and, God forbid, if they ever have children of their own, they too will think that part-time parents are normal.

Part-time spouses lead to full-time divorce…Here’s a lovely clue…your spouse doesn’t HAVE to stick around and endure your neglect, anger, or lack of involvement anymore…there is no longer a stigma attached to being divorced.

Part time workers don’t get full time benefits…and are NOT entitled to any fringes…don’t expect a stellar review because you handled a project brilliantly part of the way through…

And God – eventually, even He grows weary of somebody always asking, asking, asking, with no repentance, no remorse, no sign of living the life He asks you to live.

Part time friends will find themselves alone…and hurting with nowhere to go someday.

And if you get a reputation of being the guy that checks out if you aren’t entertained, you may find yourself not trusted enough to make a real connection when you finally figure out you need one.

Part-time effort begets part-time results…

Ask yourself…

What am I not applying myself to?

What matters in my life that I’m not giving my all?

You might say – “I can’t give my all to everything in my life.”

And to that, (as a person who is VERY experienced in having too many things and not enough time to handle them all) I say, give some up. If you can’t apply yourself 100% to the task at hand, then you probably shouldn’t be attempting it.

You might ask, “What matters to me that is slipping away?”

Then investigate if you’ve given it all you have.

Are you that person? Are you a part-timer? Are you frustrated because you are not getting what you think you deserve? Do you think that somehow you deserve to have it all, even though you have not invested yourself even one solid day in your life?

Have you given ANYTHING all you have?

Have you committed 100% in anything besides being a part-timer?

My life got VERY simple in a big hurry when we moved here…and its been a very un-busy place since we moved. But life is still FULL. And I wonder how in the world I ever managed so many activities and outings and juggling in my life.

True, there are things I want to get plugged back into – like scrapbooking – and there are things I don’t care to ever get plugged back into. I’m happy with a simpler life…and I know I can apply myself FULLY to the things in it.

We are all looking for solid, trustworthy people to include in our lives…and, honestly, people will never fail to disappoint you. But somewhere along the line, every one of us will find ourselves in a position where we are desperate to connect, to plug in, to see the fruits of our labor harvested abundantly…

If that time comes and we have not given our lives and the things we include in them our 100% attention, we will be sorely disappointed. We won’t get the raise we expect, or have the trusting and loving friendships we need, or have a life-time spouse, or rewarding work that challenges our brain, or interesting topics to discuss with others…or anything for that matter…

We are called to invest ourselves…fully, completely and with abandon…and not to regret those places where we did not invest ourselves…

Here’s a powerful lesson…you cannot have “it all.” And trying will only wear you out and leave you bereft…

Here’s another – the grass might be greener on the other side of the fence, but there is something else missing there that you cannot see from your own yard. No on has it all…no one…even the person who fully knows, trusts in, believes in and is invested in God has something missing that they cannot quite put their finger on…it is the human condition…and it never….NEVER…goes away as long as you are breathing…

And here is another powerful lesson…you will get what you give. Call it Karma, call it the law of returns, call it whatever you want...you will only get back in this lifetime what you put out there. And a lovely twist to this – you don’t get things back from the same place you give. The homeless person for whom you purchase a meal isn’t going to show up on your doorstep one day with a gift for you…it will come from somewhere else.

And one more for the road…like attracts like…evil draws evil unto itself…and part-timers attract part-timers. If you want more from your life and the people in it, change your approach.

Try harder.

Apply yourself.

Be the guy who gives it your all.

Don’t be a part-timer.

Peace, everyone.