⛽Hello November! Let's Talk About Putting Gas in the Car Before the Light Comes On ⛽

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 Hello November!

Let's Talk About ⛽Putting Gas in the Car Before the Light Comes On ⛽

Are you team wait for the gas light to come on in your car? Or team fill the tank when it’s half empty? 

One of the features of my car is that in addition to a warning light when my tank gets low, it calculates how many miles before I get to empty. I’m pretty sure the auto industry didn’t intend for me to use this feature as much as I do, but I also feel this is data that I’m not alone in being team wait for the gas light to come on. Since the closest gas station shut down a few years ago, I’ve doubled down on my usage of this feature. (Two miles in the wrong direction feels like forever compared to one mile in the right direction.)

When I finally make it to the “far-off” gas station, I always promise myself I’ll stop sooner next time. Well, maybe not a promise, more like a vague intention I immediately give myself an out for when I’m in a rush. I’ll do it later, I tell myself. Before I know it, I’m driving around with that little glowing reminder and MTE (Miles to Empty) in the single digits. We have a bunch of hills around here, and you can actually choose your route to avoid the almost empty announcements happening too soon…which makes this a pattern, a learned behavior, not an isolated event. (Sigh.)

It’s stressful, if I’m honest. On this particular day, I started calculating miles in my head…could I get where I needed to go first? Knowing full well I’d get in the car later, distracted, and forget. I had the data.

I. Still. Keep. Doing. It.

I do it in my life sometimes, too. I run on fumes. 

I do it with sleep. With rest. With margin. I put off the simple, ordinary refueling I need until it becomes urgent. I convince myself I’m saving time or energy.  I ignore the reality that it’s a pay now or pay later situation. I don’t avoid paying, but when I wait for the light to come on, the cost is always higher. Stress. Distraction. Exhaustion. Sometimes even resentment.  

When I choose to fuel up before the light comes on? Life feels completely different. I feel completely different. I move through my days with more peace, more ease, more capacity. My first-choice life isn’t about coasting on empty.

This month, as the holidays rev up and the to-do lists get longer, I’m practicing something new: filling up before I have to.  Want to join me?

I might try an earlier bedtime, a glass of water, a day off. Maybe it’s “I’ll bring the rolls” instead of hosting a whole meal, or margin on the calendar where nothing gets scheduled. Maybe it’s staying off my phone.

Refueling. Making deposits. Choosing to fill the tank before I’m running on fumes. A full tank doesn’t just keep the car moving; it keeps me moving toward the life I actually want to live. 

Who knows, maybe I’ll get around to cleaning the windshield before it’s so streaked and smudged I have trouble seeing. 

Hit reply and tell me what you are doing to refuel this month…I’d love to cheer you on.

Here's my book...✨Practicing Enough  

Here's my other book...✨Staying True 

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