Dear Friend,
In my haste to fulfill the many obligations before me, I sometimes forget to notice the quality of how
I am operating, Am I open to others? Am I stressed and overwhelmed, or feeling calm and capable?
I have discovered that, for me, success means that I am both accomplishing goals, and that I am reasonably peaceful most of the time. The term work/life balance as a description of this state has always bothered me. Balance implies equilibrium, stability, or
a position between extremes.
My life is not a steady state, and my work is not separate from my life. It’s more a question of blend than balance. A bit of this, a bit of that until the flavor is just right!
As a busy entrepreneur, mom, wife, and community member, I blend my responsibilities and my joys, my obligations and my desires into an integrated system of my whole life. Designing that life so that it is satisfying given the limited time we have available to us is the subject addressed in this month’s article.
I hope you find these ideas useful in gaining control of your time. Please let me know your thoughts,
Warm Wishes,
"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."
--Michael Altshuler, Speaker
"We must use time as a tool, not as a crutch."
--John Fitzgerald Kennedy
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
--Steve Jobs
In this issue:
- Feature Article: Befriending Time
- Call to Action
Befriending Time
In the struggle to manage our lives, accomplish our dreams, be everywhere at once — on schedule — it seems time is the enemy. We fight the clock and try to “manage” time, as if we had any say in the way the minutes and hours pass. The sense of pressure and constant urgency in our professional and personal lives has its roots in our culture's relationship with time. It seems there is simply never enough.
From this perceived lack of time, we constantly worry that we should be moving along to some other task or project than what we are currently doing. We know that time passes by so quickly, and with it, all our good intentions to get purposeful things done. Day after day we experience the same frustration.
If the root of this issue is a belief system, perhaps a different perspective would serve us better: What if time were on your side?
As a thought experiment, take a moment right now to imagine what it would be like if you had all the time you needed, all the time in the world. How would your life be different? What would your morning be like? What would you do in the afternoon and evening? How would you handle your relationships with family, friends and co-workers?
It took me just a brief moment to conjure up the image of leisurely starting my day, lingering in the shower, taking time for a morning walk. Breakfast allowed time for a nourishing meal and chatter with my kids. I wrote letters to neglected relatives and had lunch with a friend. I pictured handling all the clutter in my office, taking care of errands and then relaxing in the mid-day sun when I felt like it. With unlimited time, I could take a week off work each month to write, take some painting classes, and read good books. The image was very inviting.
Yet, as I imagined having enough time for it all, I heard a nagging inner voice whine, “But I’d never get anything DONE.” Isn’t that fascinating? With the gift of all the time in the world, a part of me insists I wouldn’t get enough done! This achievement-oriented part of me doesn’t place much value on enjoying my time.
Perhaps the rift is not between me and time, but between the different lenses through which I see the world. Can I value the part of me that wants to slow life down, relax, watch my children’s every move as well as the part of me that wants to have big accomplishments and change the world? Of course I must, because in fact, they are not in conflict, they support one another. Creating room to breathe enhances my productivity when I later return to doing.
Making peace with time means doing what you believe and believing in what you do — whether you are relaxing at the beach or working late to get a project done.
Read the rest of this article | Print the rest of article
A Call to Action
Today, take notice of the transitions between activities. Give yourself a few moments of non-activity to reflect on the following way the constraints of time can help you keep on track:
- Where am I spending time and getting no or little return on the investment?
- Am I trying to do too much at once? Where can I sequence or slow down?
- Is there an important task I have put off because I “didn’t have enough time”?
- How can I take care of it using some discretionary time?
