What is your relationship with time?
Do you wish you could freeze it so you can buy a few more minutes, hours, or days?
Do you wish someone would hurry up and invent a cloning device?
Do you wish you could transport yourself – “Beam me up, Scotty!” – instead of commuting to work or driving around town to run errands?
Whether or not you choose to live an authentic life and follow your heart’s desires, you have the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else. How are you spending it? How much choice and awareness goes into creating your schedule?
If you feel like your life is out of control and it’s not your own, it’s probably because you’re giving time away to people or things that don’t nourish you and don’t really matter to you.
Or you’re simply letting life happen around the big stuff – your job, your kid’s activities, community events – and you leave everything else to chance.
Or you’re allowing Candy Crush or Netflix to absorb all of your time, leaving you with no time to pursue your desires.
Living a fulfilling, authentic life means being present with how you spend your time. The big stuff certainly matters – and I’m not proposing that you quit your job or abandon your kidlets or elderly parents – but other things matter too: time for you, your creative projects, your big dreams, and your deepest desires.
You can’t stay connected to the thread of what matters most to you if you’re giving your time away or letting others siphon it from you. In saying yes to other people and things and allowing their demands to fill up your schedule, you’re saying no to yourself. You might think you can start that creative project when you have more time, but too often, you don’t.
And too often, you find yourself saying, “I wish I had more time!”
When you say that, you feel defeated and discouraged. You think you’re hopeless and it’s all hopeless, but it’s not and you’re not. You’ve just got to transform how you work with time so you can use it as an expression of your own truth and determine your true course of action.
So if you’re ready for a “time-makeover,” I have a few tips for you!
Look at all the things you’re spending your time on. Don’t judge anything; just keep track of how much time you spend commuting to work, cleaning the cat boxes, preparing meals, watching TV, etc. This will help you see where your time is going. And instead of going to bed wondering where the day went, you know exactly what happened.
See where you can make adjustments and open up your time. Could you decrease the amount of time you watch TV? Could you delegate a few tasks? How much time are you spending on social media? What activities line up with your goals and values? As you evaluate you might be amazed at how much time you can free up!
And for things like commuting to work, could you spend the time in a way that’s nourishing to you? You could listen to podcasts or audio books or your favorite webinar recordings. Here are some great radio shows you could listen to: http://omtimes.com/iom/category/lifestyle/inspired-conversations/
Set boundaries. As much as you may want to contribute to others, sometimes you need to stand your ground and say no. Be mindful of how you give your time away. Let go of the things that don’t excite you or allow you to be your best self. This way, you free up your time and energy to focus on the things that do light you up. And in showing-up for yourself, you’ll show-up more authentically for others.
Schedule time for your dreams, desires, and goals. You don’t have to schedule gigantic chunks of time. Spending 10-15 minutes a day to write a few short lines of your book can do wonders, as can creating a mind map of a talk you want to give, or journaling, or meditating. More is not necessarily better; small actions each day add up. What you want to do here is make the time to focus on your deepest desires and goals so you can feel like your life is moving in the right direction.
By being more aware of how you spend your time, you’ll make small shifts that will transform how you think about time and how you relate to yourself and others. You’ll see how you can work with time so you can shape your life by your authentic desires. Over time, you’ll relieve stress and overwhelm as you set boundaries and say no to what doesn’t truly light you up. And over time you’ll feel more purposeful, in control, and fulfilled every day.
