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Balancing Life's Demands

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Being Successful Where It Counts

Taking Inventory of the Many Caps We Wear
Dennis Rainey | Outcomes, Jul/Aug 2007

Consider all the caps you wear, all the responsibilities you've taken on. And if you suspect you're "trying to do it all," maybe it's time to take inventory—and consider where in your ministry (and in your family) you can't afford to fail.

Okay, I'll confess: I'm addicted to baseball caps. When I travel it's all I can do when I walk by a sporting goods store not to stop and buy a cap displaying the local pro team or university. I know I can only wear one at a time.

It's just been fun collecting caps that display all sorts of team insignias, messages, and logos. I have caps from several baseball teams including the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, and the Cantrell Lawn and Turf, my boys' Little League team that went 1-14 two years in a row.

I have a cap from a second-rate Dallas barbecue joint that a good friend claims has the best barbecue in the world. My other caps advertise a variety of vacation spots, deer and duck hunts, float trips, and a couple lesser-known corporations. I would have had two dozen, but I gave my Mom my favorite—a royal blue Dallas Cowboys cap.

So when we reorganized our closet, Barbara said I had too many and had to get rid of "a few." Painful as it was, I filled a good-sized garbage can with half my original stock. My shoes fit neatly on the shelves again, I still have my emotional favorites in my possession, and I saved my marriage in the process!

The caps we wear

Those caps serve as a reminder of all the different roles and responsibilities I wear as a man. Recently my schedule was getting the upper hand, so I decided to take a year-end inventory of the "caps" I was wearing to see if I could reorganize them or shed a few. A few from my list were: employee, Sunday school teacher, friend, speaker, counselor, recruiter, citizen, manager, motivator, writer, hunter, painter (I sling the stuff for Barbara a couple of times a year), fisherman, taxpayer, financial planner, husband, father, and grandfather.

Like all my caps, these responsibilities reveal that at times I want too much out of life. Too many objectives, too many expectations. The result? Overload. Many of us live by the philosophy I saw on a t-shirt the other day: "I want it all."

But we can't have it all, or do it all, can we?

One thing I noticed about my list of "caps" I wear as a man is that many represented people I am responsible for: As I contemplated all those responsibilities, something I frequently ask myself came to mind: The question is not will I succeed, but where must I succeed? What caps must I be successful in wearing?