As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been kind of cramped on time lately and I think this quote puts an interesting twist on how you view how you’re spending your time. It’s good to take a step back and think about how it IS a choice. Everything you do today, you did because you chose to. You place a value on every action- you put what you did today higher than something else you didn’t do. Kind of strange to think about it that way, isn’t it? I like how Laura Vanderkam says that if you don’t like how it sounds when you phrase it that way, you many need to reevaluate. I think this is a great tool to make sure we’re not losing sight of what’s important in the stream of busy lives.
It’s also a good way to make sure you have balance in your life. If I’m looking at options of all things I could do right now… I have a long list of writing, house projects, cleaning, errands, etc etc… and if you stack them against, say, watching a movie, obviously I don’t have time to watch a movie. BUT if I say I’m going to spend time with my family and they really want to watch a movie, while I may not “have time” I will make them a priority and shuffle other things around. Be aware that you are CHOOSING how you spend your time.
Zig Ziglar said, “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”
Did any of you see IN TIME with Justin Timberlake a couple years ago? The movie was alright, but I LOVE the concept- You stop aging after 25 and the currency of life is measured not with money, but with extra TIME added to your 25 years. Do you think you would do things in your life differently if you knew you had a finite amount of time? Would things that you think are important now rank the same? It’s interesting to think about. What if you view every hour of your life as a trade-off for whatever you want to do during that hour? Because that’s literally what we’re doing, but sometimes we forget to view it that way.
So today- make your choice of how you will spend your time, coming from a place of increased sensitivity to the value of each thing you do.
Make your choice and own it. Have a productive but VALUABLE day!
Brooke