The phrase "I never have time" phases us all. We are all so busy with everything that we coax ourselves with "busy lives." Is that really the case? Now, granted there are some of us that have demanding jobs, school, families, extra-curriculars, etc... But do we never have time because fruitful things are being produced, or because we are not truly being time efficient?
Now, I'm not here to "call people out" or complain about how all too often I hear such phrases. Mainly because I am the main culprit of using busyness as a copout. My goal is to shed light and grain perspective into this paradigm.
Every single person on this planet has an unknown amount of time on it. Regardless of if its 20, 40, or 100 years, each and every day we all have 24 hours. All with 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. So, what do we want to do with that time and what are we doing with that time?
I started to think and dwell on this. I looked to influential leaders and successful entrepreneurs thinking, 'wow they've accomplished so much and are doing massive things'. How do they do it?!
Being ambitious myself and having many projects with my hands in it, I trick myself into that 'I'm so busy' mentality. Then when I look to what others are doing, I wondered, am I really that busy?
Then I realized it. I'm fooling myself. There are a million things that I want to do in my life. Travel, write a book, blog more, create content, build a business, and so much more. I let my busyness hinder me from all of it. It's not the best feeling to realize that as much as you are doing, you feel like you are doing nothing, or at least nothing that truly matters to you.
That was my 'Oh, crap' moment. It hit me like a ton of bricks. WE ALL HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME!
So, I want to share some of my personal insights into this and what changes I made to make more of my dreams a reality. I can take in a million different directions, but today I'm going to chose one. I want to focus on the way we prioritize the things we do instead of the time we spend doing them...that blog will come later.
The first place I needed to start was with what do I actually do with my time that is causing me to be so busy I can't go after more. Work, for one, is very time consuming along with other commitments. We don't have to lie to ourselves about the reality of our commitments. Sometimes we don't have time because we are overcommitting ourselves to things that don't really matter or make them matter more than they should.
The conclusion I was led to wasn't that I have so much going on that I just don't have the time. Rather, it was that I have time for what I want to make time for. I could make the time to go to the gym instead of watch a show. I can reach out to a distant friend for 20 minutes instead of spend too much time in my email or on social media.
Most of us can be more time efficinet than we currently are. I am at a place when I have had the least going on in my life, but I'm in this paradox of "never having enough time". I allow the things I do have going on to become an excuse not to do things that matter. To me and to others.
The reality is, I'm lazy with my time. So what am I going to do about it?
TAKE ACTION!
Make a list of all the things you already make time for. Dwell on them. Ask yourself if you are spending too much time in one area. Where can you be more efficient with things so they don't consume your time.
Then, make a list of all the things that you want to make time for. Use a schedule and schedule the time to do those things.
This week. PICK ONE THING. Then, make the time for it.
TAKE ACTION!
Make a list of all the things you already make time for. Dwell on them. Ask yourself if you are spending too much time in one area. Where can you be more efficient with things so they don't consume your time.
Then, make a list of all the things that you want to make time for. Use a schedule and schedule the time to do those things.
This week. PICK ONE THING. Then, make the time for it.
