My experiences have taught me that it isn’t about how much time you have; it’s about what you do with it. How many times have you said that you would love to do something, but you just don’t have
enough time? The truth is that we make time for the things that are important to us. The challenge is to be clear about what your priorities are at all times.
The challenge with our priorities is that there are usually 2 sets: what are priorities currently are, and what we would like them to be. If the two are not aligned, we experience frustration and overwhelm because we never seem to have time for the things that are important to us. We’re afraid of what it would mean for everyone else if we make our needs top priority.
We feel pulled in many directions because of the different roles we play: as a parent, a spouse or partner, son or daughter and business owner or employee. Each of these roles requires our time. Of course, there are always times when we can feel like we’re in the middle of the perfect storm, where everyone needs us at the same time. It can be a challenge not to feel selfish when putting our own needs above those of others. I dedicated an entire post to the subject earlier this year.
When we aren’t clear on our priorities, it’s easy to get distracted. We spend our time doing things that can’t and won’t get us closer to achieving the goals we want. Lack of focus not only gives us “shiny object syndrome”, it also makes it a lot easier to react to putting out other people’s fires. Being focused on what’s important to us makes it a lot easier to know when to say no and when to say yes.
When you know what your priorities are, you know what to focus your time on. The next time you catch yourself saying that you don’t have enough time, ask yourself is this important to me or not? If it is, make the time. It might mean waking up earlier or cutting down your television watching, but you do have the time, it’s just waiting for you to take advantage of it! ♥