A Reminder

My wonderful editor, Sage Bray, sent me a reminder email this week asking if I had my blog for this week and, if so, to send it to her for her to make necessary changes or suggestions. Yes, she sent me the email just as a “reminder”. She does this most every week, just to keep us on schedule. But this week, her little email was also a good “reminder” for an idea, one I could use for this week’s blog post.

That idea is that “reminders” can do such great things for us, as long as we pay attention and follow through on them. We receive them in all kinds of ways. The source of “reminders” are everything from notes to yourself of what needs to be done or phone calls, emails, or a kind verbal reminder from our spouse, friends, boss, children or even strangers, who remind us unknowingly, that something needs to get done, soon or even right now.

Those reminders can also be just thoughts that jump into our mind, usually stimulated by something we saw on TV or read in the newspaper or read in a book or an email from a friend. Great reminders for all kinds of things we didn’t know we needed reminding about really are everywhere. I think we just have to be open to asking ourselves, “Is this something I need to do or pay attention to now, or more often?” We have so many things always pushing to be on the top of our mind and so some things get lost. Reminders help us dig out those really important things that are getting pushed down.

Can you imagine a world without reminders? The world we be such a different place and not in a good way—so many things just wouldn’t get done. It would be hard to improve our lives without reminders. Our relationships and our wellbeing could suffer if we aren’t reminded of those important things that keep them strong. Most, if not all reminders should be written down. Or at least the most important ones, the ones that will have really bad consequences if they’re missed. And, yes, reminders are like goals that we set for ourselves, just usually short term, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as important as our big goals or at least the steps to reach those big goals.

So here is a reminder for you to just pay attention and look for the reminders that pop up during your day. We can’t remember everything we need to do all the time but reminders are there to help us remember the important stuff. Just look for them.