I walked up to the counter for my customary Tuesday morning order. Before I could say anything, the barista interposed, “Good morning! Tall medium roast with room at the top?” I quipped back, “Please, with lots of room at the top!”
Ah, yes, room at the top. You know, for the most important ingredients – the cream and sugar. I’m one of those that likes to have a little coffee with the good stuff. Today, the barista worked her magic and got it just right. But sometimes there’s not enough room at the top. The coffee takes up too much room for the good stuff. And that’s a problem.
Does that describe your life? I know it does mine sometimes. Not enough room for the good stuff. We live life filled to the brim with no room for anything extra. We do as much as we can and spend as much as we can until we have no time, money, or energy to spare. The urgent becomes the important. The mundane crowds out the exceptional. Unlike the pages of a book, the shoulders on a highway, and room for the good stuff in a coffee cup, there is no margin in our lives.
In his book, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard Swenson, M.D. describes margin like this:
Margin is the space between our load and our limits. It is the amount allowed beyond that which is needed. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing freely and suffocating
Margin is not something that just happens. We have to fight for it. On those occasions when I order my coffee and there’s not enough room at the top for the good stuff, I have to let go of a little of the coffee.
What do you need to let go of today? How will you fight for margin? How will you leave room at the top?
Ryan Smallwood
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