- "I'm in a hurry."
- "I don't have time for that."
- "That just ate up all my time."
- "There aren't enough hours in the day."
Why am I doing this? Because we all DO have time. We have 168 hours of time every week. It's the great equalizer– we all have exactly the same amount. It's what we do with it, the choices we make, that determine the quality of our lives, our health, our level of organization and productivity, and ultimately our happiness.
Time is a created thing. To say "I don't have time" is to say "I don't want to." – Lao Tzu
What we are really doing is choosing some things over others, second by second. We are choosing to stay in bed longer, choosing to stay in a job we hate, choosing to say yes when we should say no, and choosing to watch TV instead of read. We use up our time in frivolous ways and then when additional requests are made, we say we "don't have time." That's not the truth.
I have read The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks about four times now, and in it he talks about "Einstein Time." (That link was for paperback, click here for Kindle version.) What if we stopped thinking of time as an external force to compete against? What if we took FULL OWNERSHIP of time? Gay Hendricks says:
To generate an abundance of time, ask yourself, Where in my life am I not taking full ownership? Another way to ask it is: What am I trying to disown? Or: What aspect of my life do I need to take full ownership of?… Stress and conflict are caused by resisting acceptance and ownership… When you stop complaining about time, you cease perpetuating the destructive myth that time is the persecutor and you are its victim.
The kinds of things I am saying instead are:
- "I am prioritizing other things right now."
- "I need to finish some other things first."
- "I haven't made/set aside/carved out time to do that yet."
- "Other things are requiring my attention and energy."
- "I CHOSE to do other things instead."
I am definitely not following this time-complaint ban perfectly– it is really difficult to remove these phrases from your lexicon! I catch myself constantly, and if you catch me, please do point it out. I am making myself accountable to "the world" here.
I wrote a previous post about Einstein Time that you can read by clicking here. Another previous related post: My review and discussion of my friend Laura Vanderkam's great book called 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. (Kindle version here)
I don't want to be a victim of anything or anyone. I want to take full ownership of my life and my time. What do you think? Will you refuse to be a victim? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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Excellent post….resonates with my entire being. Thanks.
Good tips there, and definitely something I need to include in my day. Is it OK if I write about and link to this post from my liveotherwise category on my blog?
(I know that reads like spam. It’s not, I’m a real person, honest!)
Yes, please, link away! This message is really important and I think, fairly radical. I would love to get this conversation out there in all possible ways. Thanks!
– Lorie
hi, lorie … love this post/concept. this high level of “time ownership” scares me, so i know i should be doing it! i’m going to blog about it, too, referring/linking to you/this post. thank you for consistently being so much more than a closet-cleaner-outer [though that’s important & enjoyable, too!]! ~ kristen 🙂
I needed to hear this right now. Off to check out the links – thank you.
I love this– thank you! I’ve often said this, even though I also use the cop-outs you’re trying to remove from your lexicon. There’s some kind of unspoken competition going on among adults in America today– that somehow, unless you’re “too busy,” you’re not doing enough to justify your existence. People gain a misguided sense of importance and self-esteem from claiming they don’t have enough time, even though the real result of this is just stress. Let’s all band together and refuse to participate in that racket anymore.