Habits give you time and space to get to your “real life.”

When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things.”

― John O’Donohue

Did you catch that line? When we live a life of reverence “our real life comes to the surface.”

A story to express how I interpret that.

I have a metal model of an x-wing. (Yes, I’m a Star Wars nerd. I grew up in the 80’s!). I want to build it. It would be a cool thing to have. I paid money to buy the model. It is kind of important.

But it takes time. Dedicated, focused time. Time where I can get out the tools to build it and space to build it where it won’t be disturbed until I am done.

I needed time and space to do something that at one point I had identified as important (by spending money on it) but that I have found reasons not to prioritize (didn’t have time or space).

Does this sound like something in your life more significant than a metal model of an X-wing? There are things in your life that are important to you that for one reason or another you have chosen not to prioritize?

Your “real life.” Not just the life that shows up in your inbox every day, not the things that are just thrown at you. The life you want to create and make rather than just what happens to you.

The life you act into existence rather than the existence that is acted upon you.

This is the life that matters. The life you want. The outcomes that matter most to you. It will cost you the time and place to create reverence.

This is where the time and space of reverence comes in. Making a habit of reverence allows us the time and space to re-establish priorities. To take a moment away from all of the business of the day and connect with what is most important.

At its heart, reverence is a state of mind. The challenge is, we don’t put ourselves in a physical state to get into a reverent state of mind. That is the habit that needs to be created.

Finding the time and space for reverence gives us the mental space to recalibrate what is most important to us.

When we take time to create the habits of time and place for reverence, it helps generate the heart and mindset of reverence.

This opens us up to the “concealed beauty of things.”

It is worth every minute to prayer, meditation, reading, pondering, and quiet time.

The challenge you likely face is creating the time and space. It isn’t easy or automatic and comes only with focused habit forming behavior.

For help on that, check out my last blog post on creating habits.