Today was one of those "catch up" days--I had the day planned as to what I would accomplish, but in spite of my best intentions, day-to-day life crept in and swamped me. From having a Sleepless in San Antonio Night due to the air conditioner going on the fritz (not a fun thing as the temperature here is still hovering in the 90s), to my husband hobbling around on a swollen knee from too much basketball, to my daughter being home from school for a holiday, to an emergency call from the barn requesting a vet get out to see our horse ASAP due to him swallowing a piece of mesquite and having it lodged somwhere in his throat--today was a day I had to, borrowing from a popular rap song, "breathe, stretch, shake and let it go."

Days like today bring to mind that sometimes no matter how intent we are to order our lives in Quadrant 2 living, sometimes we just are not able to stay there. Some of you may not be familiar with the Covey's Quadrants so here is a little description. Covey presented the idea time management in four quadrants in his mega- successful book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". He suggested we create more balance in our lives by not jumping up and dealing with every single thing that comes along our desk or into our consciousness. When we react to everything from a state of urgency, we easily and quickly become overextended and burnt out. Covey divides Time into 4 quadrants: Quadrant 1-Things that appear urgent and important (crises, deadline driven situations or meetings), Quadrant 2-Things that are not urgent but are important (preparation, planning, relationship building, values clarification), Quadrant 3-Things that are not important but appear urgent (interruptions, some email, some meetings, some phone calls), and finally Quadrant 4--Things that are not urgent nor important (busywork, time wasters/couch potato activities). Most folks spend their days, months and even years bouncing back and forth between Quadrants 1 and 4--racing at hyper speed throughout the day only to come home and crash on the couch for the night watching reruns of Friends, then when the alarm goes off the next morning, getting up and repeating the process. The key to time management and life balance is to spend as much time as we can in Quadrant 2--planning for those crises, spending time with our loved ones and friends. Often the not urgent but important things in our lives get booted out because of the chaos going on in the other quadrants.

This is what I teach my clients about and how I try to live my life as well. But today was another story in terms of living solely in quadrant 2. Thankfully, however, the day is over and I did manage to get some of the things done that I needed--what was most important though was spending time with my daughter, (Quadrant 2) as this was the gift of the day--an unexpected holiday. Tomorrow will be another day to make room for the items on my checklist--I guess I really did stay in Quadrant 2 after all!

Gifts of the Day is something elese I try to focus on--I began doing this over the summer as I wanted to really acknowledge with gratitude the abundant life I live. I view each day as a game in terms of seeking out and identifying what my gift is from the universe. Today was the vet getting to our horse in time to alleviate his discomfort and my daughter being home. One day it was finding the first red leaf of Fall at my feet on one of my runs with my dog. A blessed gift one day last summer was watching 7 swans take flight simultaneously across Buzzards Bay in Cape Cod. In Paris last Spring, my gift was the perfect cafe latte. Once I found a piece of blue seaglass in the shape of a heart. I never know what my gift will be until I find it and it resonates in my heart and soul as "This is it!"

Thoughts for today: What was your gift of today? How can you live more of your tomorrow in Quadrant 2?