Making Time Count

It literally seems like yesterday that I was writing a New Year’s blog post and now June dawns, the 6th month and half-way marker of the “new” year.

Sometimes it is hard to know what to think, say or do because time is moving on so quickly. I have been thinking a lot lately about making my time count. And I know from conversations with clients that the subject is important to them also. Their words may not be exactly the same but everything like “I’m feeling constantly frazzled, perpetually stressed, unable to do what I want to do, everything is off-kilter, out of balance, moving too fast” and on and on….that making time count takes on new meaning.

This is something we will be exploring in future newsletters. The actions to take to ensure you are making time count are varied and certainly personal – what works for one will not work for all – but I do know that there are 4 universal things to NOT do to ensure you stay on the path of making time count:

1) Focus on acquiring more things – Many people lose hours because they are trying to move around their physical clutter. Physical clutter = emotional clutter. Hunting and shopping for more “great stuff” to fill your home, closets, office and vehicle can be seductive, addictive and counterproductive.

2) Worry about everything – Just like #1 worrying is seductive. The list of things we can worry about is endless…current events, past mistakes, what was said, wasn’t said, what did and didn’t happen, and what tomorrow will bring. Learning to live in the present moment is imperative to letting go of worry. Worrying is a habit and breaking the habit can take practice. A simple place to start is to cease listening to news for a pre-determined period of time. After a news-free period, see if you aren’t sleeping better…

3) Make inflexible plans with unrealistic expectations – So much of pop culture subtlety reinforces the idea that we can have, be and do “it” all. In our efforts to achieve this (unrealistic) state, we become rigid and create all sorts of faulty expectations about our time, our lack of need for accountability and consequences of our choices. Don’t lose sight of the role that a sense of humor plays when your plans are interrupted.

4) Compare yourself to others – How easy this is to do and what a total and complete waste of time! Besides keeping your mind and heart focused on your failures (adds to #2) and everything you don’t have in life, you will bounce between arrogance and discouragement and lose sight of your core values, who you are and what you can contribute to your world. The sooner you recognize the futile-ness of this exercise and simply stop the comparison game the better off you will be.

These 4 things are sure-fire ways to NOT make your time count! As we start the last half of 2015 I encourage you to take one hour to revisit your ideas and plans you had at the beginning of the year. How are you doing with what you wanted to have happen this year? Are you making your time count? How much space are you giving to these 4 time-wasters? What can you do to diminish their presence in your life?

Let me know your thoughts and comments here.