{"id":14803,"date":"2012-03-02T04:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=14803"},"modified":"2012-03-02T04:00:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T10:00:53","slug":"crossing-daily-finish-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/crossing-daily-finish-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Crossing Daily Finish Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"
I am mostly offline, attending a business conference. I have asked several bloggers to post in my absence.\u00a0This is a guest post by Tom Basson, the spiritual growth pastor at Grace Family Church in Durban, South Africa. You can connect with him on his blog<\/a> or follow him on Twitter<\/a>. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

One of the most memorable moments of my life was crossing the finish line of the Comrades Ultra-Marathon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of \u00a9iStockphoto.com\/Willowpix<\/div>\n

After eighty-nine kilometers (fifty-six miles), and a grueling eleven hours and thirty-four minutes on the road, hand-in-hand with my mom, I crossed the finish line. We gave each other a hug and each shed a tear. It was a powerful moment I will never forget.<\/p>\n

And it got me thinking about finishing lines\u2014about how we don't need them just at the end of a long hard race, but at the end of long hard day, too.<\/p>\n

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Something you never see an athlete doing is going back over the line to run some more. Of course not; the race is over!<\/p>\n

Yet, so often in my own life, even though the “race” of a workday is over, I continue to “run”\u2014to check email, answer calls, stress about problems at the office\u2014when really I should be resting, relaxing, and giving my presence to my family.<\/p>\n

That's why this year I have started to intentionally create “finishing lines” at the end of everyday.<\/p>\n

This is a space where I draw an imaginary line in the sand and choose to put the day behind me, shifting my attitude, heart, and thoughts towards the next part of my day\u2014whether that's exercise, recreation, or family time. Here's how I do it:<\/p>\n

As the final activity before leaving work in the evening, I set aside twenty minutes to take stock of what's happened today and decide the most important tasks to accomplish tomorrow.<\/p>\n

I do this by asking myself a series of questions:<\/p>\n