What Do You Need To Unsubscribe From?

Over the years, I’ve signed up for a lot of newsletters, store promotions, and more via email. I’ve recently come to realize I’ve signed up for way too many emails. Many of them I no longer read or they no longer apply to me.

What does this mean for me? It means my email inbox has become inundated with emails from companies and organizations. Just today, my inbox contained over 500 emails from various companies.

Man walking while pulling a suitcase

Photo by Mantas Hesthaven

That’s a lot. A lot more than I’m comfortable having in my inbox.

I choose to do something with all of these emails. I began to look at the emails, their senders, and whether or not the emails were pertinent to me.

Doing this allowed me to determine which email lists I wanted to stay connected to and which email lists I was okay with clicking the unsubscribe button.

What Do You Need To Unsubscribe From?

Our lives become a lot like my email inbox. Our lives become cluttered with things we’ve signed up for, agreed to do, or people have given us (yeah, those spammers!).

With this overload of activity, we begin to wonder where our days go. It seems like we have no time for what we long to do. All of our time is consumed by the urgent demands of others.

There might be an organizational board you signed up for. They do great work but they no longer align with what you’re doing. Do you stay or do you unsubscribe?

Maybe you decided to help a family get through a rough patch. It’s been 3 years and they’re in a better place. Yet you’re still helping them. Do you stay or do you unsubscribe?

Or you might have chosen to serve in a church ministry position you were passionate for. The passion has left you and you no you don’t belong in the position any longer. Do you stay or do you unsubscribe?

We have a choice in our lives. We can stay subscribed to the activities and demands in our lives that no longer serve us. Or we can choose to take back a small portion of our lives and choose to click the unsubscribe button on the things we signed up for but no longer desire to be a part of.

Your commitment to a cause 2, 5, or even 10 years ago doesn’t mean you have to stay committed. You need to find time to examine the commitments you have made. Look them over. See if your heart is still in them.

If your heart has changed, realize you can unsubscribe from your commitments. You don’t have to be wishy-washy on your commitment. You don’t have to go back and forth like the Clash did in their song Should I Stay Or Should I Go.

A word of warning. Your word means something. If you recently committed to an activity, make sure you fulfill the commitment you made. When your commitment is up, let those you’re serving know you’re going to move on.

Look over your life today. Determine what you need to stay subscribed to. Determine what you can unsubscribe from. Then cut ties.

It’ll hurt at the moment. Then it will get better.

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