Inboxes around the world are beginning to see Sign-Up Coffee & Back to School Sign-UP‘s creep into the mix, a tell-tale sign that Summer is almost over.

The busy-life calendar threatens most homes. In May, The New York Times’ Laura Vanderkam weighed in on the topic in her op-ed Busy Lives:

HOW’S life? Oh, busy.

So goes the mindless modern conversation — a constant assertion of the scarcity of time. A December Gallup poll found that 61 percent of working Americans said they did not have enough time to do the things they wanted to do. Some of us feel this more acutely than others: A 2015 Pew Research Center survey found that 9 in 10 working mothers said they felt rushed all or some of the time.

Whether we’re working inside or outside other home, calendars and all that comes with them, have an interesting magnetic pull to be filled. Why is it we feel the need to fill? Is it FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)? Or YOLO (You Only Live Once)? Are the pressures to be or to do or to fit in or to measure up driving decisions?

Add in a house load of kids (or even one with multiple activities) and the car becomes our best friend. We pass each other like ships in the night – except we’re riding asphalt instead of waves, wishing our our feet were staring at the ocean rather than a gas pedal.

Well, I asked Robin Pou – author, attorney, mediator, & executive coach, father of three and friend to many (including one person who might rope you into sharing if you’re not careful :) to weigh in. He’s so great at helping people see beyond the moment and tap into the bigger picture in ways that energizing and productive.

Just to give you a taste of why I would ask Robin to share, here’s a little something Robin contributed to my last book I‘m Happy for You – (Sort of … not really): Finding Contentment in a Culture of Comparison (Enjoy his wisdom now, because he just might start running the other way when he sees me coming – eek!)

My friend Robin Pou pointed out to me the other day, “Sure comparison robs us of joy. But it steals more than that.”

He continued, “When we are focused on wanting what someone else has, we’ve right there, in that moment, substituted our unique giftedness for theirs. When I compare my kid to the superstar whatever, I’m saying that God made a mistake by making my kid a certain way because he’s missing what the other kid has. And in the process, his identity and purpose gets lost. So not only are we tearing down our kids in the midst of comparing what they do or don’t have to those around them, we’re actually stealing their unique identity and purpose.”

I LOVE how this compliments our new vodcast (a podcast you can watch) SaySomething’s topic today. Managing life’s busy based on our Purpose, Personality & Priorities. Here’s a CLIP:

Want the rest of the story?? …

Here’s the FULL EPISODE (35 minutes). If you have a second, please click HERE to subscribe to the SaySomething YouTube channel. Subscribing helps us be able to get a dedicated channel url.

More to come from The Say Something Show. Next week, our friend Kathleen Fischer (the Teen Whisperer) will offer some TERRIFIC advice on how to love our kids in the midst of and in the navigation of social-calendar challenges, specifically those of the peer-pressure variety.

Thanks for walking the road with me.

-Kay