Personal development
It’s not more time you need…
As a coach one of the phrases that I often hear from clients
is ‘I don’t have the time’ as they speak
about the things that they know they ‘should’
do but never seem to get around to.
Often these are the things that, by their own admission,
would make a significant difference. Examples are things like
keeping fit, more time with close family, or working ‘on’
their business rather than just ‘in’ it.
But isn’t time is the one thing we all have common?
Whatever advantages or disadvantages you consider you or anyone
else has-whether it’s money, education, resources, talents,
or relationships, what we all have in equal measure is time.
It’s our most precious resource. You cant’ make
more, it relentlessly moves on, and your allocation is going
down. So how come only a small minority seem to be able to
achieve all they want and still seem to have plenty of time
to enjoy life?
Let’s look at wasting time. I just went on the internet
and searched around and several sources suggest the average
adult spends four hours per day watching television. Some
TV is great but four hours per day!!! When people get to the
end of their days and look back has watching 9 years of television
really been where it’s at?
Another one is e-mail. I thought computers were supposed
to save time but they’ve created one of the biggest
time wasters of all.
Conversely, I don’t believe that effective ‘time
management’ is about cramming in more and more. Evidence
suggests that many people are already living very stressful
lives so adding in even more activities to a busy schedule
isn’t going to help. So what is the answer?
Do what’s important to you. The essence of creating
a life that you love is simply doing what’s important.
The real question then becomes ‘what is most important?’
not ‘how can I find more time?’
I’ve got a 5 year old son. Lately, he’s been
coming into my office and saying ‘daddy, will you come
and play with me?’ I found myself saying ‘I’m
busy right now, maybe later’, on several occasions.
This thought saddens me. My Dad died when I was young and
before I ever really got to know him. He worked a lot. I now
spend more time with my children.
How many people say ‘Where am I going to find time
to keep fit?’ Like being unfit is going to make the
rest of my life so much better. Well, about three hours a
week will keep most people in good shape if used properly.
That’s only 75% of the average person’s daily
intake of television!
In his book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people’
Stephen Covey calls one of the habits ‘putting first
things first’. He describes spending more time on what’s
important but not urgent. These are things like planning ahead,
time with loved ones and looking after yourself. It’s
putting your values, your goals and the things that matter
first. It’s about creating the right balance.
To do this we have to learn to say ‘no’ more
often. ‘No’ to activities, people and situations
that waste our time. ‘No’ to those things that
can seem attractive but really aren’t important. Our
natural impulse is to take the path of least resistance but
to become more effective we have to be more conscious of ourselves
in these moments.
In the book ‘The Road Less Travelled’ by M. Scott
Peck he says ‘Life is Difficult’. What’s
difficult is thinking. Thinking ahead. Thinking about consequences.
Thinking about which road to take in any given moment. The
path of least resistance or the road less travelled?
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