Lost time is never found again. -Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) One of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
As I write this, I have just completed a fantastic day of training my real estate clients and feel inspired by their passion to challenge themselves and learn more! During a particular exercise, they were all asked what is the biggest challenge they face on a day to day basis…and according to the majority…time management!
How could that be? With all of the obstacles and hurdles each day, why do we struggle so much with how to deal with the onslaught of time. I think the basic problem is that we have an inaccurate perception that we can control time at all. Really…think about it…manage time…impossible! It just keeps on rolling along regardless of what we do with it!
The truth is that the best we can hope for is that we block our usage of that time to pursue our dreams…yet that also seems to be an idealistic pipe dream. You see most of us are simply frustrated with what we do with time!
Consider the saying “time flies.” Does it really though? Many people with children can’t even imagine where the time went, yet ironically when they were getting up in the middle of the night to change diaper after diaper, I guarantee you they willed time along to just get out of that stage.
The heart of the matter again can be found within what it is that we really want out of the limited time we have, because to us time really is a limited resource. Most people never block even a little bit of that time to sit still and ask themselves what is it that they really want out of the several areas of balance in life.
They cry I want more money, but did they ever first plan out how much time they would need to spend earning it and then more importantly how they would save a portion of it? They say I wished I had more time with my spouse and kids, but did they ever take the time to plan a simple family outing or some alone time with loved ones? They say I’m lonely, but did they ever take the time to venture out to meet new people in a new setting? Or even worse they become depressed by the fact that time seems to have played the thief and stolen all of their greatest opportunities…but was it really time that was the thief??
The fact is that time doesn’t know any better…it just does its thing…it keeps on rolling! So stop giving it so much credit, instead beware the time vampires and leeches! That’s right, they’re everywhere! They come dressed in all different disguises…friends with nothing better to do than chomp on your ear, colleagues with any agenda other than work, television sucking the brain out of your skull and brainwashing you to follow someone elses agenda…but worst of all: YOU!
That’s right…it’s not Father Time at all that’s guilty…it’s you! Of course we are all given a time allotment when our life begins…some more than others but that can be rendered irrelevant by what you do with it! How many great people have we lost way too young whose accomplishments are only the dreams of many lifetimes!
The real problem is that we just waste so much of this precious commodity chasing our tails, never really taking the time to simply figure out what we actually would prefer to do with our time! Instead we’ll look in the rearview mirror and blame anything and everything for our misuse of our portion!
But there’s hope and don’t offer some lip service that you’re too old for this! I have heard the story of an alcoholic who cleaned themself up in their seventies to go on to enjoy the greatest final 24 months of their life! But please don’t wait for a major catastrophic life event to wake you up! Why do we have to get so beaten up before we realize that we need to block out our time to serve us when it’s just so simple! Maybe it’s because we take it for granted until we’re sure ours is almost up!
There are several easy steps to getting rid of the time gremlins! Step 1: take a personal inventory of what’s important to you in all areas of your life but especially Financial, Family, Physical and Social…we simply need to take care of those basic needs or we are forever off base. Be as clear and as specific as you can be about this! Step 2: put together an ideal week that includes time blocks for everything that you have written down in Step 1. Hello! This is the stuff that you delcared most important so why wouldn’t you have a plan as to how much time you need each day, each week to get what you want?
Once you have this “ideal week” both written and mentally in place, you will have built, in essence, your “wooden stake” that you can drive through the heart of the time vampires and leeches! How? Easily! You see the clarity you’ll receive from focusing on your written goals will begin to automatically eliminate the “noise.” What noise you say? Anybody or anything that interferes with what you really want to do…need to do with your time!
So it’s time to step up and understand that time thieves come in all shapes and sizes but no bigger thief than you yourself! If you swim headlong into Father Time, he will crush you…not because he doesn’t want you to have all of your dreams fulfilled, but simply because you didn’t play his game! So instead, just grab your surfboard and catch the wave! You just go ahead and ride your time right over those leeches and vampires straight to your hearts desires! Remember: Your Life = Your Time…make the best of it!
Tags: Ben Franklin, Inspiration, Motivation, Self Improvement, Time Management
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