The MONTHLY Motivator - September 2007

Make time your friend

“I don’t have enough time.” It’s an all-too-common complaint. It’s an often-used excuse. It’s an assumption that nearly everyone makes. It’s a concept that is so widely accepted that it often doesn’t even need to be said out loud -- it’s just understood.

But is it really true?

You wake up in the morning, look at the clock, and realize you’re already running behind. You rush to get dressed, grab a bite to eat, work your way through traffic, check your voice mail and e-mail, and get constantly interrupted by phone calls and unexpected requests. Then you feel hungry and realize lunchtime was an hour and a half ago. You begin to seriously lower your expectations for the day. Those things you thought you would start today, you put off until tomorrow -- tomorrow afternoon, that is. Tomorrow morning will have to be reserved for the things you originally intended to finish yesterday. As for the rest of today, it’s going to be a mad rush to complete those things that really should have been done last week. What you had hoped to put a lot of quality thought and consideration into, you have to just skim through. Because there’s simply not enough time.

Or is there?

As each year passes, the clock seems to run faster and faster. The deadlines and commitments form a pile so thick that you give up all hope of ever getting to the bottom of it. Time feels like it is moving faster and faster, and the demands on that time grow even more quickly. You begin to get an unshakable feeling that time is your enemy.

Imagine how it would be if you could see time as your friend.

The way you make use of your time has an enormous impact on the quality of your life. You have an innate understanding of that, and so you attempt to cram more and more activities into a fixed amount of time. You know that the more you can get done, the better off you’ll be, and you fill your schedule so full that everything becomes a blur.

Have you ever considered that you could achieve more by doing less?

There are things you would really like to do, and things you know you really need to be doing. But you can’t find any free time. Wonderful opportunities come along, and you’re frustrated because there is no time available to pursue them. Although you’re surrounded by people, there’s a part of you that feels lonely and isolated because there’s just no time to develop or maintain deep and intimate bonds with others.

What if you started to think differently about time?

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--Ralph Marston

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